#8
^ The city of my birth, but not ever my hometown. I was saying back in the 70s that Pittsburgh would be the last part of the rust belt to accept that the "glory days" were not coming back. The efforts to re-make it as the San Francisco of the east are proceeding apace, just not the way the city boosters intended.
And the voters keep voting for it, getting it good and hard and voting for some more.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/15/2023 11:25 Comments ||
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#9
Considering US Steel after 100+ years is entertaining offers to be bought; the Glory Days will definitely not be back.
As a 'tax payer', I'll offer to kick them in their gender, no charge.
To be funded by the money Canada will not be paying to care for those forced instead to commit government-paid suicide.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Minor aesthetic procedures for transgender individuals should be publicly funded, according to health officials in Canada.
#2
I was listening to DoomCock’s take down of Disney’s new gender fluid Minnie Mouse’s TikTok sale of red polka dotted merch. The character Skull of Calderon pointed out that gender fluid once got Bill Clinton in a lot of trouble.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/15/2023 8:06 Comments ||
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#3
Let the 'influential medical panel' pay for it -- its their idea!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/15/2023 14:01 Comments ||
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#5
Insurance and Medicare will not cover laser eye surgery, it's "cosmetic" but they will cover people mutilating themselves because they are nutballs.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/15/2023 16:41 Comments ||
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#6
I watched Pitch Perfect with my elder daughter years ago. She thought that I would be entertained by the vomit scenes. She read me right. It seems that this voice feminization technology could pose an unfair advantage in acapella singing competitions.
No, I am not actually serious.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/15/2023 16:54 Comments ||
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#7
#5 Deacon true, but because it is cosmetic the docs will negotiate, I had lasik 30 years ago and the doc knocked a significant amount off and I shoveled money into an FSA, so that eliminated all the taxes, on income, as well
#9
The Canadian and UK medical systems are going bankrupt. The Canadians are encouraging patients to kill themselves. It seems like a poor time to extend additional services to anyone.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/15/2023 22:07 Comments ||
Top||
The English medical system has not been waiting for more expensive patients to kill themselves, having had in place protocols for withholding all but water without notification for patients deemed eventually terminal.
[YouTube] That Show Tonight found a certain white house in DC that's perfect for elderly care! You've heard of A Place for Mom? Get ready for A Place for Dad!
[TheDiplomat] The Taliban ...Arabic for students... ’s anti-Persian stance is rooted in their educational and cultural background, but also reflects a longstanding desire by successive Afghan governments to displace the Persian language.
Recently, the Taliban’s deputy minister of information and culture made headlines when he asserted that "Afghanistan does not need Persian literature." Sputnik Afghanistan reported that when addressing a group of graduate students at the Gulghulah Hotel in Bamiyan
Continued on Page 49
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics
[ColonelCassad] Germans gloat over the failures of Macron's African policy.
The coup in Niger was evidence of the failed policy of France and Europe, the German TV channel ZDF notes. For a long time, Niger remained a French colony and mined uranium for Paris, and the deposed President Bazum acted as a supporter of the European Union - but in the end everything turned out to be nothing. Moreover, there is a danger that Niger may turn to Russia.
At first glance, Niger's recent history looks like a success story: In the 2020-2021 elections, incumbent President Issoufou, in accordance with the constitution, no longer ran as a candidate and vacated the seat for Bazum's successor. This is the first peaceful transfer of power in the history of the country, according to the German TV channel ZDF.
Already under Issoufou, Niger had firmly tied itself to the former colonial power France and the European Union. However, the current coup shows how unequal relations between Niger and France have remained. This is an instructive example of the erroneous policy of the Europeans, emphasizes the ZDF.
Even when Niger was a colony, France discovered its huge uranium deposits. France needs the metal for its nuclear power plants, and it mines it from its former colony through the billion-dollar state-owned Orano. Rather, this uranium is mined there for France.
In May 2023, state-owned Orano and Niger extended a new agreement that ensures uranium mining until at least 2040. At the same time, Orano, whose annual turnover is more than €4.2 billion, is committed to investing €40 million in "social projects".
When Greenpeace* visited the cities of Arlit and Akokan in Niger in 2010, the consequences of uranium mining became clear: according to the report, the radiation level on the streets of Akokan was 500 times higher than normal.
At Arlit, four out of five samples exceeded the World Health Organization's recommended values. One of the accusations of Nigerians is the neo-colonization of the country by France, which does not care about people or nature. To this day, only 20% of Nigerians have access to electricity.
Due to its central location, Niger has become a country through which many residents of other African states flee to Europe. In connection with the tightening of European refugee policy, the Francophone government of Niger passed a law in 2015, according to which billions of euros from the EU came to the country's budget.
The law, similar to the agreement between the EU and Turkey, aims to prevent refugees from entering Europe, a German TV channel explains. It introduces criminal liability for entire professional branches. In Agadez, the last stop before traveling through the Sahara desert, the law turns taxi drivers into smugglers, many hotels are also closed. Where there used to be freedom of movement, now France and Europe are watching for a lack of such freedom.
But the billions that go to the budget of Niger do not reach the people. Two out of five Nigerians still live below the poverty line. Development aid makes up 40% of government revenues, but according to economist Robert Kappel, only 1% of the population uses it: this is a misguided policy of France, which the EU does not hesitate to support, ZDF notes.
Instead, in Niger, they pursued only their own goals: the prevention of migration and the extraction of raw materials. The local population does not benefit from this. On the other hand, antipathy towards France and Europe is growing.
Even if the coup leader Tiani's motivation is not directly related to hostility towards France and the global North, this once again shows that the African policy of France and the EU has failed. Europe and the global North simply have not been able or willing to ensure that the people of Niger benefit from the partnership.
Removed from power, President Bazum is alien to loyalty to the rule of law and fundamental human rights. According to some reports, he arbitrarily imprisoned those who disagreed with his government, and the opposition accused him of violations in the 2020-2021 elections.
However, above all, it was precisely the proximity to France that created strong obstacles for him: he transferred to Niger special military units that had previously been stationed in Mali. Not all Nigerians liked this, since many civilians did not feel protected by the French military, but saw in them only an excuse to exploit the rich resources of Niger. A similar opinion is shared by some officers, among whom, obviously, the participants in the coup are present.
Now Niger has become the next state in the Sahel after Mali and Burkina Faso, threatening to turn to Russia. There is no doubt that for Russian policy in Niger, the rule of law and democracy do not have a high priority, and the extraction of raw materials comes to the fore, ZDF argues. But France and the European Union too often look away when it comes directly to Niger, and instead focus more on their own well-being, concludes the German TV channel.
It's funny that at first the Germans talk about the predatory mining of uranium by the French in Niger, and in the end they conclude that the extraction of raw materials is a priority for Russia, and for France and Europe the main thing is "the rule of law and democracy."
[MoneyWise] There is some justice for school teachers, who have the dubious distinction of playing a vital role in society while earning a comparatively low annual income.
That justice comes in the form of the millions of dollars that many of them consistently hold in their savings and investment accounts, according to the "National Study of Millionaires," a research project by Ramsey Solutions, whose CEO is the personal-finance expert Dave Ramsey.
Teachers rank third, behind engineers and accountants, on a top-five list of careers most likely to have millionaires within their ranks. Business professionals and lawyers ranked fourth and fifth.
How could it be that teachers, who earn an average annual income of $61,000 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, take third spot, while physicians don’t even rank in the top five?
HIGH INCOMES DON’T ALWAYS ADD UP TO WEALTH
The top five list came out of a survey of millionaires that drew upon answers from 10,000 participants. The majority — 79% — had not received inheritance. Eight out of 10 had invested in a 401(k) plan. And contrary to expectation, most millionaires surveyed didn’t have high-salary jobs. Instead, 93% said they’d created wealth simply by working hard.
Working hard and spending less than they earned. My darling father-in-law, a steel worker, advised me on my wedding day to “pay yourself first”, setting aside the first quarter of our paycheck to put in savings and live on the remainder. The problem too many high earners have is that they feel they deserve a fancy lifestyle, or that they must live like their peers, and that competition always costs more than one’s income.
Only 15% held senior management jobs, such as at the VP or C-suite level, and only 31% made an average of more than $100,000 in annual income at any time in their career. One third of those surveyed never achieved six figures.
"In other words, you can’t earn your way out of stupidity," Ramsey said of the study results on a recent episode of The Ramsey Show, his syndicated radio program.
He’s quoted in the text of the study as saying something similar: "It turns out that math works for all of us, especially when you understand your income is your most powerful wealth-building tool."
[JohnKassNews] The Irish national epic is Tain Bo Cualigne (The Cattle Raid of Cooley). It's a long poem about the greed and vanity of elites and the courage and honor of those who are bound to fight for them. The king and queen of Connaught own a white horned bull and want to match it with the legendary Brown Bull of Ulster. At first, they attempt to finagle the brown bull of Cualigne (Cooley) and then outright steal it.
The prose/poem is a litany of lies, deceptions, curses, blood and misery. Note again that this work is the national Irish epic.
Heroes die by the hundreds and deeds of valor abound, bolstered by mighty oaths.
The bulls are brought together, and they slaughter one another. Very much ado and all for nothing.
I grew up with Irish literature and history. My grandparents escaped the misery of late 19th century County Kerry and settled for the glories of Chicago's stockyards. From there they built solidly middle-class lives in the land of the free and home of the brave. Their children and grandchildren inherited the privileges of American citizenship, while enjoying a connection to our romantic Celtic past. Ireland was the land of saints, scholars, poets, rebels and martyrs.
I visited Ireland a few times and came away with a much greater love for America. I look at Ireland today and am sad.
Ireland, or rather the Irish, have seemed to disappear. The Woke would say that the Irish have evolved. Me? I say they’ve evolved into voiceless, timid and complacent beneficiaries of a soulless culture.
Sure, there is Guinness and Father Ted and GAA hurling and football and Craic, but the faith of our fathers has vanished.
Pope John Paul II, now a Saint, visited Ireland in 1979 and praised the nation for its faithfulness. At that time 90% of the population identified as Roman Catholic and 87% of that demographic attended services. In 2022, 69% identified as Catholic and only 40% of those attended services. The next largest group after Catholic is "no religion" at 14%.
Ireland is now secular, globally Woke, passive and controlled by the European Union (EU) and Silicon Valley.
This past spring, Ireland ordered that 200,000 head of cattle be killed in order to curb bovine flatulence that is allegedly causing the planet's destruction. Dairy products are Ireland's principle exports - think Kerry Gold.
Ireland has been constitutionally neutral since the birth of the Republic, under the arch-Catholic Eamon De Valera. Today, the EU wants to put an end to Irish neutrality and is pushing to add Ireland to NATO.
Ireland is enthralled to Silicon Valley and the global elites of the EU. Angela Nagel, a brilliant public scholar and an American-born Irish writer, has become a target of the Woke. Her book Kill All the Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumbler to Trump and the Alt-Right caused a Leftist Woke backlash that continues today. There was no MAGA or right-wing rage against Ms. Nagle.
In 2020, the brilliant Ms. Nagle wrote this assessment of Irish Wokeism:
Having uncritically adopted the fashions of American academia, Ireland's new young, educated elite have started parroting the imported language of "white privilege" versus "people of colour," and the dangers of nationalism versus the superior multinational capitalism-friendly values of openness.
There is little reason to think the cultural revolution sweeping across Europe from America will stop and listen to the "but we’re on your side!" pleas offered by Irish Republicans about how they supported the anti-apartheid movement in the Eighties or how our nationalist heroes were anti-imperialists or that our Republicans today are economically left-leaning and pro-immigration.
Anyone who thinks these details will matter, and that any remnant of Irish cultural nationhood will be immune, is simply not paying attention to the unstoppable internal logic of the current cultural revolution underway. This new generation of elite aspirants are already showing that they make no such distinction and simply recast the native Irish as "white people" whose privilege needs to be checked and ultimately dismantled.
What has happened to Ireland? It has been bought off. The people of Ireland serve cruel masters. No, not Perfidious Albion, the British Crown, but the global elites of the EU and Silicon Valley. Why? Tax breaks. Miss Nagel notes,
As a result of the low-tax policies introduced in the late Nineties, Ireland today is effectively a tax haven, hosting the European headquarters of Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and many others. Some of these companies have been found to be paying as little as 0.005% tax. While this project gave Ireland the Celtic Tiger economy, it also produced a deeply unequal society totally subservient to the sovereignty and ultimately the values and culture of the corporations who today are its guiding force. For our obedience, we received surely the lowest of honours just last year when anti-yellow vests French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy congratulated us for being a people who resist the winds of populism (emphases my own).
Populism is Woke dog-whistle for fascist, or MAGA, or right-wing extremist. Any sobriquet to tamp down free speech. If you are a devout Catholic, oppose abortion, demand secure borders due to Ireland's unrestricted immigration policies, and want to end identity politics whereby any identification but that of Irish has a free hand, then you are deemed a far-right national populist. One group has drawn the collective ire of EU elites: Niall McConnell's Irish Patriot organization.
Angela Nagel warned that Ireland is as much subjugated by the Woke overlords of the EU and Silicon Valley as it was under British Rule. She writes,
The revolutionary generation that gave us the Irish nation understood that you cannot be culturally, intellectually or economically self-directed if you're ruled from a foreign power. These recent events have started to reveal the irreconcilable and contradictory nature of the official ideology of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland, which tried to dress our colonial relationship to international capitalism as a national triumph. The Irish will soon learn that if your economy is ruled from California, your society will start to look like California, a nowhere of the very rich and very poor, but without the sunshine.
Remember this: It was an Irish Chieftain who invited the Normans under Henry II to help him retain some power. Dermot McMurrough became a willing vassal of the Earl of Pembroke and the Plantagenet kings. It was Irish bishops that backed the play of Pope Adrian (an Englishman named Nicholas Breakspeare) and handed the Irish Church over to the British kings.
Likewise, the two major Irish political parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, struck the deal with Mammon and brought about the Celtic Tiger of the 1990s. Ireland is now a sad European Union petty state. While it has a mighty history of martyrdom, rebellion and faith, it also holds a miserable record of self-deception and outright betrayal.
The Irish people have a long and honored tradition of speaking truth to power. Jonathan Swift, Theobald Wolf Tone, Robert Emmet, Edmund Burke, Daniel O'Connell, James Connolly, James Larkin, Constance Georgine Markievicz, Protestants and Catholics alike, loudly shouted at oppressive policies and attitudes. Precious few voices are heard calling for change these days. The Irish media is as co-opted as the American corporate media. People like Angela Nagle are "cancelled."
The Irish have sewn their mouths shut. The two bulls of Ireland are gored and dying, yet again.
Born November 8, 1952 in Englewood Hospital, Chicago Illinois, Pat Hickey attended Chicago Catholic grammar and high schools, received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Loyola University in 1974, began teaching English and coaching sports at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, IL in 1975, married Mary Cleary in 1983, received a Master of Arts in English Literature from Loyola in 1987, taught at La Lumiere School in Indiana from 1988-1994, took a position as Director of Development with Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond, IN and then Leo High School in Chicago in 1996. His wife Mary died in 1998 and Hickey returned with his three children to Chicago’s south side. From 1998 until 2019, it became obvious that Illinois and Chicago turned like Stilton cheese on a humid countertop. In that time, he wrote a couple of books and many columns for Irish American News. When the kids became independent and vital adults, he moved to Michigan City, Indiana, where he job coaches Downs Syndrome and Autistic teens in LaPorte County. He walks to the Michigan City Lighthouse every chance he gets. Ireland, at least on paper, is one of the richest nations in Europe based on GDP. Scratch the surface, and you begin to understand why so many of the folks there live below what we would consider 'The Poverty Line'.
[SavageMinds] Imran Khan was last week sentenced to three years in prison—and a five year ban from politics—for alleged embezzlement of official gifts. This follows his removal as Prime Minister in a CIA engineered coup, and a vicious campaign of violence and imprisonment against Khan and his supporters.
It is currently illegal in Pakistan to publish or broadcast about Khan or the thousands of new political prisoners incarcerated in appalling conditions. There have been no protests from the UK or US governments.
Imran Khan is almost certainly the least corrupt senior politician in Pakistan’s history—I admit that is not a high bar. Pakistan’s politics are, to an extent not sufficiently understood in the west, literally feudal. Two dynasties, the Sharifs and the Bhuttos, have alternated in power, in a sometimes deadly rivalry, punctuated by periods of more open military rule.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Harcourt Tholuse6841 ||
08/15/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#4
Mr. Khan, elected on his former status a a cricket hero, is not smart enough to be corrupt. Truly it is said of him that he has more hair than brains.
#5
I remember one day a Pakistani couple was visiting us. I had told my wife one day that Banezir Bhutto was pretty but really just a thieve from a family of thieves. To my surprise and dismay,my wife repeated my opinion to our guests. I swallowed hard figuring they might be offended. Instead they said, 'yes that is true'. I found out later they favored Pervez Musharraf who was probably less corrupt than Khan and under whose leadership the Pakistan economy actually did pretty well.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/15/2023 16:02 Comments ||
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[Jpost] In the current four-dimensional crisis, no one even knows what kind of army there will be in September and how each major actor will maneuver, let alone think about a multi-year plan.
#1
Not to be confused with REMFs who are definitely toxic.
Studies have shown...seems to me that if electromagnetic radiation from cell phones and such caused cancer, we would have seen a huge spike in the number of cases given how common the devices are.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kirill Semenov
[REGNUM] As a result of a night attack on a military bus on August 11 in the province of Deir ez-Zor near the city of Al-Mayadeen in northeastern Syria, militants of the so-called. The "Islamic State" killed 23 Syrian soldiers and 13 more were injured.
This attack indicates that the terrorist activities of the Islamic State, after several years of calm, have again begun to gain momentum in Syria. At the same time, the rapid increase in the number of militant attacks coincided with the time of the SVO in Ukraine, which makes it necessary to draw certain conclusions.
CONTROLLED ESCALATION
The increased activity of ISIS in Syria since the beginning of the year has already led to heavy fighting in April-May near the city of Al-Qaum. Then the IS militants were able to take control of several settlements, and government troops only with the support of Russian PMCs and Aerospace Forces managed to squeeze them back into the desert. However, the IS attacks did not stop there.
In particular, according to the Military Observer Telegram channel , another terrorist attack took place in the Syrian province of Homs at the end of May. This time, the Russian military headquarters was attacked, the servicemen of which rebuffed the militants. But the Russian military also suffered losses: as a result of this attack, the head of the tactical direction, Colonel Oleg Pechevisty, was killed . The response was a massive strike by the Russian Aerospace Forces on identified IS facilities.
In July, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a rather unexpected terrorist attack in Damascus. Then at least six people died near the mausoleum of Sayida Zeinab. And already on August 1, terrorists attacked a convoy of vehicles transporting oil products in the Syrian desert guarded by the Syrian army, as a result of which five soldiers and two civilians were killed.
Finally, last Monday, August 7, in the Syrian province of Raqqa, ISIS terrorists attacked checkpoints of government troops. According to foreign sources familiar with the situation, 10 fighters of pro-government forces were killed and at least 6 were injured.
It should be noted that the “controlled” revival of ISIS in the Syrian desert and the increase in the activity of this terrorist group is directly linked to the penetration of militant groups into government-controlled territories from areas held by the United States and its allies, predominantly Kurdish left-wing radical groups of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
In particular, the flow of both recruits and veterans of the IS, who secretly leave prisons and camps under US control in northeast Syria, does not decrease. Obviously, it is in the interests of the Pentagon to maintain the threat of a resurgence of IS through the use of its own channels to replenish terrorist cells.
Prisons and detention camps for IS militants and their families in the Syrian territories held by the Americans have long turned, on the one hand, into an element of blackmailing the international community on the part of the pro-American SDF formations, including to prevent possible operations by Turkey. On the other hand, they are an important asset in maintaining the “controlled escalation” and, if necessary, transferring it to the “controlled chaos” mode through constant “leaks” of militants to the outside.
It is significant that a new generation of militants is already maturing in these camps. Those who got there as minors have already undergone appropriate indoctrination. Now they are 18-20 years old, and they are ready to join their "older comrades".
In turn, the activity of terrorists will serve as an excuse not only to maintain, but also to increase the American military presence in the Syrian northeast. Since its declared goal is to prevent the revival of ISIS.
The latest Pentagon report cites data from the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Information indicates that operations against ISIS by the Syrian government and Iranian-backed groups have shown little effectiveness. These forces rely on both a network of checkpoints and intermittent and ineffective ground patrols around known areas of IS operations.
REASON TO HURT IRAN
Under the veil of countering ISIS, the Pentagon may be hiding preparations for operations of a different nature. In particular, information continues to circulate about US plans to establish a connection between the At-Tanf base in southern Syria, where the pro-American groups of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are concentrated, and the territories in the northeast of the country controlled by the SDF.
Such an operation can be explained by the Americans as necessary in order to suppress the activities of the ISIS in the Syrian desert, which the Syrian government forces and pro-Iranian militias are allegedly unable to cope with.
Of course, this will be an additional argument for a possible military campaign in eastern Syria, another declared goal of which may be to counter the "Iranian threat." Which, from the point of view of the American administration, is quite a good reason for military action: in recent years, the Americans and their allies in Syria have “exchanged fire” dozens of times with pro-Iranian groups.
The latest incident on August 13 may well belong to the same series. According to the Iranian Fars News Agency, five rockets, apparently fired by a local pro-Iranian group, hit the positions of American forces in the area of the Konoko gas field. Four more exploded at a US base near the El Omar oil field. And a single missile hit the American airfield at the Al-Shaddadi base.
After that, in the Sabur region, not far from Damascus, there was an explosion of ammunition depots and missiles of pro-Iranian militias. It cannot be ruled out that this could have been a retaliatory action on the part of the United States.
In turn, earlier there were reports about the alleged readiness of the United States to conduct a military operation in Syria to establish control over the border town of Albukamal on the border with Iraq. There is a "Shiite corridor" from Iran to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria, linking the so-called. The Axis of Resistance is a pro-Iranian regional alliance.
Thus, on August 2, the Lebanese edition of Al-Akhbar, reflecting the point of view of the Hezbollah group, stated that the Americans were reconfiguring their military presence in eastern Syria in order to take control of the transport corridors between this country and Iraq. The Syrian opposition media Enab Baladi also noted military preparations both by pro-American forces and by pro-Iranian Shiite militants who support official Damascus.
Rumors about a possible American operation in Syria are also fueled by the FSA command in At-Tanf. So, explaining the recent maneuvers of the FSA groups in the Tanf area, its commander specified that these exercises are aimed at active participation in the upcoming hostilities. Against whom and where they will be fought, he did not specify.
Although earlier, on July 12, these pro-American factions explicitly rejected statements about the inevitability of military action in Deir ez-Zor, emphasizing that their main responsibility is to protect the 55-kilometer section and the Rukban camp.
Nevertheless, the process of mutual integration and coordination of the pro-American FSA and SDF continues. FSA commander Muhammad Farid al-Qassim has previously said he has no objection to military coordination with the SDF alliance. According to him, the forces entrusted to him have already made progress in integrating with them. This distinguishes him from his predecessor, Muhannad al-Talaa , who repeatedly refused to work with the SDF, which was one of the reasons for his replacement by the American command.
The other day, Muhammad al-Qassim announced significant steps to strengthen cooperation with the SDF and other armed pro-American groups, which have now established a joint operations center. He stressed that there is a growing consensus on the need to coordinate the efforts of all armed groups in Syria in order to achieve their common goals.
PENTAGON STRATEGY
At the same time, the problems for the conduct of the American military operation in the Syrian desert are obvious, despite the close coordination between the FSA and the SDF. Between At-Tanf in the south and Albukamal in the northeast there is a significant distance of 120 kilometers, aggravated by the impenetrable expanses of the Syrian desert. It creates barriers to the mobility of US-backed factions.
At one time, it was from the At-Tanf base that the detachments of the pro-American FSA from the so-called. "New Syrian Army". Back in June 2016, the task of the Americans was to get ahead of the pro-Iranian Shiite groups by sending their proxies to certain death surrounded by superior ISIS forces. That attack ended in their defeat, and the city was taken and is still controlled by the Shiites.
Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties with conducting such an operation, the main goal of US activity in eastern Syria may be to increase pressure on Russia. It is obvious that any military operations of the American allies in the territories held by the Syrian government will lead to the intervention of the Russian military, primarily the Aerospace Forces.
Actually, the American operation in the east of Syria may not take place, but maintaining the escalation in this area allows the Pentagon to continue to pursue its strategy aimed at "depleting Russia." Maintaining the combat readiness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Ukraine for some more time, according to Washington's plan, should weaken the Russian Armed Forces.
In turn, the activation of ISIS in Syria and the constant threat of an American military operation in the Syrian northeast should keep the Russian military in the SAR on their toes. This will force Russia to maintain both a high level of combat readiness and the very military presence in that country, which will put additional pressure on the Russian Armed Forces as part of the American strategy to continue the “war of attrition”.
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.
...Arabic for 
