[Huffpoo] What follows is not very pretty. But it may be the best option available in a crisis without good options.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made no secret of the fact that he would like some kind of political settlement with the West. The German magazine Der Spiegel has just published a leaked official Russian memo outlining a proposed grand bargain in which Putin eases out its close ally, Syrian President Assad, in favor of a still pro-Russian regime that at least stops killing its own people. In return the West acknowledges what has been an open secret for several decades--that Syria is Russia's sphere of influence in the Arab world.
Then the U.S., Russia, Iran, and the rest of the grand coalition can get on with the urgent business of eliminating or at least drastically weakening ISIS. Greater progress on getting rid of Assad was raised at a strategy conference on Syria held in Vienna earlier this week that included senior diplomats from the U.S., Russia, Iraq and several other nations. No grand bargain was reached but the idea will surely be raised again at the G-20 Summit now under way in Turkey.
Until the Paris attacks, there was little enthusiasm in the West for this approach. Putin, after all, is a thug and he has put Russia on an expansionist course. On the other hand, maybe a grand bargain with Putin against ISIS is not so crazy.
As part of the deal, the U.S. and Russia would have to reach some understanding about how to stabilize the situation in Ukraine, probably acknowledging a Russian sphere of influence in the eastern, Russian-speaking part of the country. That is not pretty either.
#4
In return the West acknowledges what has been an open secret for several decades--that Syria is Russia's sphere of influence in the Arab world.
They used to just call them a client state. I don't know how much of a secret it was, open or not. Only morons like Chomsky denied it.
#5
"pro-Russian regime that at least stops killing its own people" ALL the regimes in that area kill large numbers of the own people, except for Israel, and maybe Jordan. It started when Cain killed Abel, I doubt it will end any time soon. Enough with the nation building. Countries outside that area really don't want to do that anyway. However those same countries really don't want to have the killings and killers exported to THEM. That idea isn't very pretty, either.
Over at Asia Times, I argue that France will do nothing in response to the Paris massacres but round up the usual suspects. A 2014 opinion poll reported that support for ISIS among the whole French population stood at 16%, just below President Francois Hollande's popularity rating of 18%. Muslims comprise 10% of the French population, which means that if ALL French Muslims said in effect "I Like ISIS," an additional 6% of the non-Muslim population also liked ISIS, by way of sticking it to the United States. French authorities fear a civil war if they crack down on Islamism, an Israeli expert advising the French government explains.
What is it about the French? By way of background, I repost below a 2010 essay on the subject of suicide in France, individual as well as national.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
11/16/2015 11:00 ||
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Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
French authorities fear a civil war if they crack down on Islamism...
If that's what it takes better get on with it before their population grows even more.
#3
France is April 2017. Germany is September 2017, which might be even more interesting.
I would not be surprised if events supervened in either country.
BLUF: [WND] Judging from her treacherous conduct, Merkel’s fellow-feelings reside exclusively with the refugees she intends to import by the millions. Her sympathies do not extend to the people at whose pleasure she serves and to whom she owes her flinty heart.
Angela Merkel is thus not unimpeachably moral, as Der Spiegel claimed; she is plain impeachable.
Germans must dethrone Angela Merkel before this dictator re-elects another people in their place and renders them aliens in their homelands.
Opinion piece by Daniel Pipes.
The murder of some 127 innocents in Paris by a jihadi gang on Friday has again shocked the French and led to another round of solidarity, soul searching, and anger. In the end, however, Islamist violence against Westerners boils down to two questions: How much will this latest atrocity turn public opinion? And how much will it further spur the Establishment to deny reality?
As these questions suggest, the people and the professionals are moving in opposite directions, the former to the right, the latter to the left. In the end, this clash much reduces the impact of such events on policy.
#4
France needs an election, soon. I don't think Hollande is up to the task.
Watching the Dem debate on Saturday and seeing how uncomfortable the Dems were during the foreign policy section I expected Sanders to just throw up his hands and concede. The elite have no plan. Even Obama today admitted they had no plan.
Back during the cold war we had a plan to invade Antarctica just in case something came up. Now they have no plan.
The article connects a lot of dots. Global Warming is not one of the reasons mentioned for Islamic terrorism.
"Ever since the religion of Islam appeared in the world, the espousers of it...have been as wolves and tigers to all other nations, rending and tearing all that fell into their merciless paws, and grinding them with their iron teeth.... Such was, and is at this day, the rage, the fury, the revenge, of these destroyers of human kind."--John Wesley (1703-1791) Methodist leader
"While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men."--John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) Sixth President of the United States
"Qur'an... an accursed book... So long as there is this book there will be no peace in the world."--William Gladstone (1809-1898) Prime Minister of Great Britain 1868-1894
There are such "social values" today in Europe, America and Australia only because during those thousand years, the Christians of Europe possessed the warlike power to do what the Christians of Asia and Africa had failed to do--that is, to beat back the Moslem [sic] invader.--Teddy Roosevelt (1858 -1919) Twenty-sixth President of the United States
So what's going on here--why does Islam seem to periodically morph into a bloodthirsty intolerant monster from time to time, place to place? The simplest response is that the answer lies in the Quran itself, Islam's holy book--that and certain historical teachings based on the Quran.
I do not mean that the Quran is an evil book, but when a certain type of Muslim cherry-picks particular passages from the Quran, Hadiths, and other Islamic teachings they can, and do, come up with a vile, poisonous, intolerant, hateful and hate-filled homicidal/suicidal perversion of Islam.
How to separate the wheat from the chaff, moderate Muslims from radical ones, is one tough nut to crack, because both Sufi saints and murderous zealots read from the same book. The difference is in which passages they focus on and emphasize in their hearts and minds.
In a way the situation is akin to the "old Indian tale" about the two wolves in your heart--one of love and one of hate--ever in conflict. Which wolf wins depends on which one you feed.
There's one last major point I want to hit on as I wrap things up. Why have "we the people" been lied to for so long by the press, media, and others about the dangers posed by radical Islam? There are several answers to that question (including the billions spent by Muslim countries to promote Islam in kafir nations), but the one I will focus on ties in with my last article, "Right Wing Nazis: The Big Lie."
Attentive readers might recall that I pointed out that fascism (and hence its offshoot Nazism) was, is, and always will be a Big Government (i.e. LEFT wing) ideology. Islam, by the by, is LEFT wing also. By its very nature a theocratic (in this case Islamic) government will tend toward totalitarianism, that is, tend to the extreme political left.
The French Revolution's "Reign of Terror," Stalin's gulags, Hitler's concentration camps, Pol Pot's "Killing Fields," ISIS's cages...do you sense a pattern there?
One of the reasons, perhaps ultimately the main reason, the press, media, politicians (Democrats especially), and others have been covering up for radical Muslims is because the majority of them are all in bed together. Communists, fascists, NWO globalists, and Muslims are all LEFT wing, and you had better believe that Left wing communist/fascist extremists and radical Muslims are tight. Odd bed-fellows, no doubt, but they are united in their hatred of freedom, Western civilization, and Christianity.
The French Revolution's "Reign of Terror," Stalin's gulags, Hitler's concentration camps, Pol Pot's "Killing Fields," ISIS's cages...do you sense a pattern there? I sure do--and the pattern tells me that Big (i.e. Left wing) Governments which are allowed to metastasize to cancerous proportions will eventually end in tyranny and bloodshed--it's a proven truth you can take to the bank.
[Sidebar: I suppose you can't blame the left wing for trying to pawn some of their more disreputable failed ideologies onto the right wing, but don't you fall for the ruse. Keep the communists, fascists, Nazis, and Muslim totalitarian governments firmly pinned in your mind where they belong--on the LEFT side of the political spectrum. Benito Mussolini, the man who coined the term "fascism," once proclaimed "Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, niente contro lo Stato"--which can be translated as "All within the government, nothing outside the government, nothing against the government." You cannot get any more LEFT wing than that--yet the Left continues to bray their absurd "right wing fascists" nonsense regardless. They can sing to their choir all they want, but as I say, don't you fall for it. "We the people" need to be awake and alert, now more than ever.]
If you have done your homework then you know that the Far Left has been busy, busy, busy for some time trying to destroy nation-states (i.e. countries) and painting them as passâŠ, retardataire, and other French words. For one example read the Agenda 21 proclamation that President Bush Sr. signed "we the people" up for at the 1992 "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro ("National sovereignty is a social injustice"). National sovereignty is a social injustice? Now that's something I'll bet America's Founding Framers did not realize.
"Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring that about?"
Maurice Strong, chief organizer of the Agenda 21 "Earth Summit"
Hijra is immigration designed to subvert and subdue non-Muslim societies and pave the way for eventual, total Islamization.
Janet Levy "The Hijra"
If I didn't know better I would think that the current Muslim "immigration" problem in Europe looks a great deal like the meshing of Islamic hijra with the Far Left's desire to destroy nation-states (not to mention the destruction of Christianity in Europe as well--a sort of lagniappe as they say in New Orleans).
Actually I do know better and that's exactly what it looks like to me. One world government...good God do you have any idea what a bloody nightmare that would be?
Any freedom loving American who suffered through the tin-eared indifference of the historically corrupt (which is saying something) 111th US Congress as they railroaded through ObamaCare, got a faint taste of how arrogant, unresponsive, and uncaring a global government would be.
In any event, my advice to globalists of various stripes and persuasions who have been playing so cute and clever with the Muslim extremists is STOP IT, or "we the people" will make you stop, and you will not like how that goes one bit. In addition, you elites might want to rethink that whole moral relativism/multiculturalism boondoggle you're so fond of, and you students attending our education/indoctrination centers might want pull your heads out of your butts for a minute and consider the full implications of what destroying the privilege of free speech means.
#2
BTW, the same people who push the propaganda about RoP, have no problem also pushing America as corrupt because it started with slavery (in some of the states). If you're going to claim one is poisoned by its origin, so should you hold the other.
[US Defense Watch] ISIS and radical Islam have declared war on anyone who believes in the cause of freedom.
This is World War III. ISIS knows it. Does President Obama? Does Prime Minister Cameron? Does Chancellor Merkel? Does President Hollande?
As ISIS attacks Paris, Obama wants to ship in 100,000 Syrians who can't be vetted and Merkel speaks of tolerance.
Obama, Cameron, Hollande, Merkel: the names don't exactly denote fortitude do they?
Hollande just hit ISIS with 20 bombs and is sending an aircraft carrier to the region. It's a good start. It's a jab, a pin prick of what needs to be done. What Hollande should do is invoke Article V of the NATO Charter, which states, "The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area."
What needs to be done is not for the faint-hearted. It is what nations do during world wars. It is total war and whether anyone wants to admit or not, that is what we must wage, a ruthless, vicious war.
This is a time for real leadership and for men and women made of steel. Sadly, the West has no Churchills, no De Gaulles, no Thatchers, no Reagan's to call upon, to take the helm, to lead us all to victory. We are left with wallflowers, when we need warriors.
Israel does have Netanyahu. Notice how ISIS hasn't hit Israel yet. Netanyahu is a friend, the best of friends and he can help. Putin is a tough customer, a roughneck in a silk suit. He's just what the doctor ordered in the fight against ISIS. He needs to become an ally in World War III, not someone we're rehashing Cold War arguments with. We can worry about Latvia another time.
#1
A quibble. We won WW III when the Soviet Union collapsed. WW III actually started before WW I even ended, with British & US troops fighting the new Red Army in Russia, that part of the war didn't end until about 1919. This would be WW IV.
#6
....Just as a topic of conversation, some historians feel that if a World War is defined as a war where most or all of the major powers on Earth are involved, we're actually up around WWV or VI.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/16/2015 18:56 Comments ||
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#7
The 7 Years War and the expansion of the American War of Independence to include other European powers encompassed Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and the Indian sub-continent. So, yes, technically, WWI was pretty much WWIII.
#8
..and if you want to throw in the expeditions to Haiti, the Cape, and that little side show the Yanks call the War of 1812, during the Napoleonic Wars then that would be WWIII with 'WWI' being WWIV.
#9
AlanC has it right. This is an existential battle between Islam - all of it - and non-Islam. It is a battle of annihilation, and only one side is actively fighting it right now.
Those of us on the civilized side of the divide watch the internecine warfare between the different flavors of Islam, and marvel at the sheer fortuitousness of that combat. Our enemy is so f%@&ing evil that it cannot restrain itself from slaughtering its own kind.
But - the civilized world needs to step up its game. Muslims are breeding like cockroaches, and are - as I write - pouring into the west like an evil plague. Allowing this is the height of madness.
This battle of annihilation will continue for generations to come. The western mindset needs to change, and to recognize the enemy -Islam - all of it - for what it is: a violent death cult.
Unless we get serious, and start containing the contagion to the wastelands from where it originated, then at the incoming turn of 22nd Century, I fear that there will only be small, isolated pockets of free men left on Earth, muttering among themselves: "Back at the dawn of the 21st Century, what in God's name were our ancestors THINKING to have allowed this unholy pestilence to have spread around the world without meaningful, resistance?"
BLUF
[Huffpoo] These "lone wolves," are therefore anything but "lone." Though the media, government, and even terrorists like ISIS themselves use the term, these new terror recruits are still connected to the group, even if such people do not have face-to-face contact or fly to the Middle East or some domestic compound for training. These new recruits bring in family members, or even other like-minded individuals. Yet we found cases like the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Oklahoma City Bombing, or even 9/11 attacks carried out by "lone wolves." We found that in 24 cases between 2013 and 2015, 22 were labeled "lone wolves" even though only a third actually involved a solitary attacker. This research coincides with evidence found from pre-2013 studies.
A senior professor at the panel agreed with our assessment, and added that perhaps one reason why the "lone wolf" term is used is hardly an accident. It's easier to describe the attack as one that can't be stopped, instead of realizing that these individuals are hardly alone. Links still exist and there are dots to be connected. That's often why in the wake of such an attack, those connections gradually surface, showing that few really were "lone wolves."
#2
Easier to dismiss them as lone nut jobs than accept they're obeying the edicts of their faith.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/16/2015 14:26 Comments ||
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#3
Easier for the ruling class to mislabel as long as they can get away with it in order to avoid doing what is necessary so they can concentrate on their own agendas. [Oh my god, I'm acting just like my (fore)fathers(s) I so trashed.]
#2
From March of this year, but no less topical now, including differences with Al Qaeda. Long, as all Atlantic articles are. Worth saving to reread, or in my case, read in full.
I am moving this to Page 4: Opinion to make it easier to find and because it is not current events, though Page 2: War on Terror Background/Politics is technically its proper place. We are already at 77 articles today, almost all on pages 1 and 2.
"The issue is will more than capability. If we are not willing to apply non-lethal counterintelligence techniques against the Islamic State, which is vastly more dangerous than the IRA, the Weathermen, the Black Panthers, or the KKK, we may wish to consider giving up now. Applying offensive counterintelligence in a strategy based on penetration and provocation is a messy business, and there will be mistakes, but it is not based on killing, neither does it involve invading other people's countries, much less occupying them."
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 ||
11/16/2015 00:00 ||
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[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
"The Gods of the copybook headings with fire and thunder return" = sod off swampy and take your "non-lethal techniques" with you.
#3
Don't be too hard on these idiots- They have finally noticed reality, and are dimly groping their way to the understanding you and all the other Rantburgers out there have had out there. The "non-lethal" bit is just an intermediate mental transition state.
The big thing is to let the continual mental shocks of future events push them the right way, so that they cannot just dismiss it as "Right Wing Propaganda".
#4
Just listening/watching our idiot-in-chief speak at the G-20 Antalya Summit. We are not going to accomplish much anything against ISIS until this nitwit is dumped out of office.
#8
We need to be willing to do "wet work" in foreign countries on leaders and advocates, funders and recruiters of jihad.
We've done it in the past and there is no reason why we should not do it now.
A few mysterious deaths caused by a bullet behind the left ear or a Mexican necktie would be a start. No advocate of violence to America should be able to sleep soundly in their own bed.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/16/2015 12:05 Comments ||
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#9
Nuke the sites from orbit.
Kill everyone other idiot spouting Allen snackbar!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
