Bharat Rakshak

habal wrote:

Gen Martin Dempsey Warns Not To Strike Syria US Not Ready A Fools Errand McCain Calls Dempsey “Disingenuous”

"...According to The Guardian article, retired Army colonel Bob Killebrew said Dempsey is an “absolute straight shooter” and his reluctance to get involved in Syria is likely “the opinion of all the chiefs.”

In this documentary ( about McNamara) he referred to the Vietnam War and he said, "None of our allies supported us. Not Japan, not Germany, not Britain or France. If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning." (However, 60,000 Australians & 3,500 New Zealanders fought in the Vietnam War, where respectively 500 & 37 died, and 3,000 & 187 were wounded.[35][36])

U.S. Selling Cluster Bombs Worth 641 Million to Saudi Arabia
By Carey L. Biron

WASHINGTON, Aug 23 2013 (IPS) - Arms control advocates are decrying a new U.S. Department of Defence announcement that it will be building and selling 1,300 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, worth some 641 million dollars.

The munitions at the heart of the sale are technically legal under recently strengthened U.S. regulations aimed at reducing impact on civilian safety, but activists contend that battlefield evidence suggests the weapons actually exceed those regulations.

These weapons have not been used by the U.S. in over a decade, so it’s hard to see why it’s in our interest to sell these to Saudi Arabia.” -- Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association
Opponents say the move runs counter to a strengthening push to outlaw the use of cluster bombs around the world while also contradicting recent votes by both the U.S. and Saudi governments critical of the use of these munitions.

“Both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have recently condemned the use of cluster munitions by the government of Syria – that’s ironic given this new sale, because a cluster munition is a cluster munition, no matter what kind it is,” Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a watchdog group here in Washington, told IPS.

Q : What do you think the US is trying to achieve geo-politically here?

As I have said before, I don't think this is just about Syria. It is about Iran. It is about striking at Iran's only Arab ally.

Q : In Iraq the US and its allies went to war to neutralise non-existent WMDs, based on information that clearly turned out be false. This time, not even Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria is denying that chemical weapons have been used on unarmed civilians in a Damascus suburb ?

Remember when Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons on unarmed civilians in Halabja, no one did anything at all. Saddam, at that point, was a western ally. The CIA put it out that Iran had used the weapons. If the western powers were utterly nonchalant then, why can they be nonchalant now?

Q: Does it surprise you that President Obama, who was greeted with so much hope around the world when he was first elected, and who had said peace in the Middle East would be a priority for his administration, failed to bring about even the realistic possibility of an Israeli-Palestinian settlement?

No, it does not surprise me. Governments are not about good guys and bad guys. Government is about power and the use of power. The structure of power in American politics is well known— total and uncritical support for Israel, right or wrong, even to the detriment of US interests in the Middle East. Faced with the possibility of a one-term presidency, Barack Obama was not prepared to abandon this policy in favour of justice. The presidency was worth more to the Nobel Prize winning president than were the Palestinians.

The Russian warship Nikolai Filchenkov is being given a special mission according to a source from the Saint Petersburg-based central naval command. This Russian warship’s special cargo will be picked up after it leaves the Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol.

Lindsey Graham Says Charleston Harbor Could Be Attacked: Missing US Nukes in Texas on Way to SC?

CBS Charlotte is quoting Senator Lindsey Graham saying failing to strike Syria could result in terrorists striking Charleston Harbor. Alex Jones is reporting a source at a West Texas Air Force Base where B-1 Bombers are housed saying:

“secret moth-balled weapons that weren’t even supposed to be on the base” were “loaded on trucks and the police said where are these going? Nobody’s signing for it. The base commander simply gave orders and everybody knew that this was completely irregular and there had been a big controversy a few years before when this happened in Minot, North Dakota with cruise missiles…” “The truck drivers said all we’re told is, this is going to South Carolina and we don’t know where it goes from there.”

Graham told reporters in Goose Creek on Tuesday that taking action against Syria in response to the situation is not a question of yes or no, but rather a question of bad or worse choices.

He says if there is no U.S. response, Iran will not believe America’s resolve to block Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Graham also says those nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists could result in a bomb coming to Charleston Harbor.

He says he’s working to convince South Carolinians weary of war that the situations in Syria and Iran are linked. Graham says Syria could destabilize the entire Middle East.

Footage of chemical attack in Syria is fraud — RT Op-Edge
rt.com | Sep 6th 2013 12:29 PM

There is proof the footage of the alleged chemical attack in Syria was fabricated, Mother Agnes Mariam el-Salib, mother superior of St. James Monastery in Qara, Syria, told RT. She says she is about to submit her findings to the UN.

Mother Agnes, a catholic nun, who has been living in Syria for 20 years and has been reporting actively on what has been going on in the war-ravaged country, says she carefully studied the video featuring allegedly victims of the chemical weapons attack in the Syrian village of Guta in August and now questions its authenticity.

In her interview with RT, Mother Agnes doubts so much footage could have been taken in so little time, and asks where parents of the supposedly dead children are. She promises to send her report to the UN.

The nun is indignant with the world media for apparently turning a blind eye to the Latakia massacre by rebel extremists, which left 500 civilians including women and children dead.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has called on the international community to pay attention to revelations made by Mother Agnes Mariam el-Salib.

RT: The United States has used internet photos and video footage of the supposed chemical weapons attack in Eastern Guta to build a case against the Syrian government. Have you been able to look at these files? What do you have to say about them?

Mother Agnes: I have carefully studied the footage, and I will present a written analysis on it a bit later. I maintain that the whole affair was a frame-up. It had been staged and prepared in advance with the goal of framing the Syrian government as the perpetrator.

The key evidence is that Reuters made these files public at 6.05 in the morning. The chemical attack is said to have been launched between 3 and 5 o’clock in the morning in Guta. How is it even possible to collect a dozen different pieces of footage, get more than 200 kids and 300 young people together in one place, give them first aid and interview them on camera, and all that in less than three hours? Is that realistic at all? As someone who works in the news industry, you know how long all of it would take.

The bodies of children and teenagers we see in that footage – who were they? What happened to them? Were they killed for real? And how could that happen ahead of the gas attack? Or, if they were not killed, where did they come from? Where are their parents? How come we don’t see any female bodies among all those supposedly dead children?

I am not saying that no chemical agent was used in the area – it certainly was. But I insist that the footage that is now being peddled as evidence had been fabricated in advance. I have studied it meticulously, and I will submit my report to the UN Human Rights Commission based in Geneva.

RT: Recently you’ve visited Latakia and the adjacent areas, you’ve talked to the eyewitnesses to the massacre of civilians carried out in Latakia by Jabhat al-Nusra. What can you tell us about it?

MA: What I want to ask first of all is how the international community can ignore the brutal killing spree in Latakia on Laylat al-Qadr early in the morning of August 5, an attack that affected more than 500 people, including children, women and the elderly. They were all slaughtered. The atrocities committed exceed any scale. But there was close to nothing about it in the international mass media. There was only one small article in “The Independent”, I believe.

We sent our delegation to these villages, and our people had a look at the situation on-site, talked to the locals, and most importantly – talked to the survivors of the massacre.

I don’t understand why the Western media apply double standards in this case – they talk about mass murder that the use of chemical weapons resulted in non-stop, but they keep quiet about the Latakia massacre.

RT: Do you know anything about the fate of hostages captured in Latakia?

MA: In the village of Estreba they massacred all the residents and burnt down their houses. In the village of al-Khratta almost all the 37 locals were killed. Only ten people were able to escape.

A total of twelve Alawite villages were subjected to this horrendous attack. That was a true slaughterhouse. People were mutilated and beheaded. There is even a video that shows a girl being dismembered alive – alive! – by a frame saw. The final death toll exceeded 400, with 150 to 200 people taken hostage. Later some of the hostages were killed, their deaths filmed.

At the moment we are looking for the hostages and negotiating their release with the militants, but so far we haven’t managed to achieve that.

RT: We often hear reports of Christians being persecuted by the militants. Just the day before yesterday there was an attack in the village of Maaloula, where the majority of population is Christian. Are Christians in Syria facing grave danger?

MA: Everyone in Syria is facing grave danger. There was a case of Muslim religious leaders being kidnapped and beheaded. They were humiliated and tortured. Ismailis, the druze, Christians – people from all parts of Syrian society – are being mass murdered. I would like to say that if these butchers didn’t have international support, no one would have dared to cross the line. But today, unfortunately, the violation of human rights and genocide in Syria is covered up on the international level. I demand the international community stops assessing the situation in Syria in accordance with the interests of a certain group of great powers. The Syrian people are being killed. They fall victim to contractors, who are provided with weapons and sent to Syria to kill as many people as possible. The truth is, everywhere in Syria people are being kidnapped, tortured, raped and robbed. These crimes remain unpunished, because the key powers chose international terrorism as a way to destroy sovereign states. They’ve done it to other countries. And they will just keep doing it if the international community doesn’t say “Enough!”

RT: You’ve managed to get hold of some sensitive information. Does this make you fear for your life as someone who keeps documents that may compromise the militants? Has anyone threatened you?

MA: You are right. I do get threatened. They are trying to discredit me. I know there is a book coming out soon in France that labels me as a criminal who kills people. But any believer should first and foremost trust their conscience, their belief in God, and that will help them save innocent lives. I don’t care much about my own life. My life is no more precious than that of any Syrian child, whose body could be used as evidence to justify wrongdoing. This is the biggest crime ever perpetrated in history.

RT: What should the Syrians do to stop the tragedy they are going through?

MA: The Syrians themselves can do nothing to stop it. They can only rely on the international community, friendly nations, world powers, such as Russia, China, and India. With a lot of enthusiasm we did welcome the news that the British parliament voted against the participation of their country in the possible war against Syria. There is a terrorist war going on against Syria right now. The international community and Syria’s friends should join forces and say: Enough! And they need to use every opportunity to do that. Otherwise this threat Syria is facing now will turn into a threat to universal peace.

RT: What should the Vatican and other hubs of Christianity do to put an end to this tragedy?

MA: The Pope says he has no planes, no bombs, and no armed forces. Instead, he has the power of the truth, and the truth he has told. There are messages coming from everywhere in the world urging against a military intervention in Syria. Those who want to hear them will. The Pope, the patriarchs, Nobel Prize winners, including women, keep saying the same in unison: Let’s stop fighting. No conflict can be solved by military means. Stop adding fuel to the flame!
All the prominent public figures in the world have risen to speak against the war. Everyone has spoken their mind, but the US prefers to turn a deaf ear. The world public opinion has turned against the US. It’s the first time in history that America is alone. They are claiming that they are backed by ten countries. But I insist they aren’t, because the people of these countries disagree with their governments. Even the American people disagree with their government.

RT: Do you believe that this tragedy will end and Syria will remain a homeland for all Syrians, regardless of their ethnical or religious identity?

MA: I’m not Syrian myself, but I’ve been living in Syria for 20 years. I’d like to remind everyone that Damascus is the most ancient capital in the world. I would like to remind everyone that Syria is the cradle of civilization. I would like to remind everyone that this is the holy land that gave birth to the main world religions. What is happening in Syria should serve as a lesson for everyone. I mean that in existential rather than political sense. I am convinced that with God’s help the Syrian people will be able to remain strong, heal their wounds, reconcile and chase out all the foreign mercenaries and terrorists. I believe there will be peace in Syria. But for that we need help from the international community.

Rudradev wrote:Jones,

Putin has said he will help. What kind of help, I wonder? An S300 system or five, perhaps?

We may well see some F-16 Pussies get blown out of the sky by Russki hardware

As the U.S. Congress debates authorizing a military strike against the Syrian military for its use of biological weapons against innocent civilians, the impact of such a strike on the Christians in the country has been a cause of concern. To get a better understanding of the situation, The Christian Post spoke with Rupen Das, director for community development and relief at the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development.

Das, who is leading the aid efforts in Syria for LSESD, warned that a strike against Syria could make things worse for Christians there, who have already been attacked by some of the anti-Christian rebel forces.

"If the regime forces are weakened or temporarily off balance, there is every indication that the radical groups will use the opportunity to step up their attack on the Christian and Alawite communities," Das said.

Amyrao wrote:I am 95% confident that US systems will out perform Russian systems two or more reasons

11:44 GMT: The European Union's Catherin Ashton claims that available information is enough to constitute strong evidence of the Syrian regime's responsibility for Augusts' chemical attack.

11:20 GMT: President Obama said that a small military force may be needed in Syria after all, to deter future chemical weapons attacks – according to Reuters. Although he said on his weekly radio and internet address that a protracted conflict like “Iraq or Afghanistan” is not something he wants.

Austin wrote:http://rt.com/news/syria-crisis-live-updates-047/

11:44 GMT: The European Union's Catherin Ashton claims that available information is enough to constitute strong evidence of the Syrian regime's responsibility for Augusts' chemical attack.

11:20 GMT: President Obama said that a small military force may be needed in Syria after all, to deter future chemical weapons attacks – according to Reuters. Although he said on his weekly radio and internet address that a protracted conflict like “Iraq or Afghanistan” is not something he wants.

Amyrao wrote:No Russia cares about its own interests so does US rightly ok many times wrongly

If Syria is not protected at least in words if not in deeds you can expect one by one CIS states to welcome American bases some of them have already done so

Acharya wrote:It is the geopolitical interest which is very critical

Russia has bigger stake in Syria after investing in pipelines and other infra
Sunni with the backing of US are taking over all the weak states and is reducing the influence of Russia in the entire middle east

This will tilt the balance of power and will lead to long term civil war.

JwalaMukhi wrote:Name one country which has been supported by Russia that has become better than what it was before being supported.
Perhaps Cuba... If that's the best the Russia can do, there is not much to look forward for aspiring quislings of Russia, Is there?
Russia doesn't have wherewithal to bring in betterment of other nations in any other sphere. It basically means it can sell military hardware and render other nations impotent to even conceive of self sufficiency. Most nations supported by Russia are cess pit of mediocrity.

Russia does not have expertise to put in place systems - overall for any other nation to better itself, because it can't be a role model. It doesn't have the holistic solutions that are remotely attractive to other nations, beyond military hardware. Russia although is principally is in it for itself as other nations do, but it doesn't have anything evenly remotely to bring in overall betterment of others who look to it. Unless, it overcomes that major handicap, it will have to be content with just peddling arms as its strong point.

The simple truth of the matter.
Its not worth to spill even 1 ounce of a marines blood for 1000 jihadists and Saudi cronies
Period.

Following the broadcasting of the images of the massacre in Ghouta, distributed by the Free Syrian Army and relayed by US and French services, Alawite families from Latakia have filed a complaint for murder.

Some of these videos were filmed and posted on Youtube before the events they picture.

They show children suffocating from a chemical intoxication that can’t possibly be sarin gas (the latter provokes yellow drool, not white drool).

The children do not correspond to a sample of the population: they are all almost of the same age and have light hair. They are not accompanied by their grieving families.

They are in fact children who were abducted by jihadists two weeks before in Alawite villages in the surroundings of Latakia, 200km away from Ghouta.

Contrary to the sayings of the Free Syrian Army and the Western services, the only identified victims of the Ghouta massacre are those belonging to families that support the Syrian government. In the videos, the individuals that show outrage against the ’’crimes of Bashar el-Assad’’ are in reality their killers.

Singha wrote:imo this is the last chance for Russia to show itself a force to be reckoned with in ME. else Iran is just the next domino to fall to wipe the slate clean and Pax Saudica to prevail with its troops of jihad monkeys howling and mewling at the full moon from mauritania to herat.

rus should imo deploy a few batallions of russian airborne forces to be followed by more seaborne forces and put boots on the ground after signing some midnight treaty. it could be a IPKF style request by assad to help clean out the rebels. open the tap on arms to the assad regime. ... fly in their best radars and missiles, with operators. fly in some Mig31s and Shmels to patrol the air . forward deploy. Show the flag. be a cold war cuddly bear again. get backfire and blackjack units to patrol and buzz USN assets. encourage Cheen to send a large flotilla to muddy the waters further and defend its own markets.

US love it or hate it , did risk its blood and treasure to capture Iraq and Afghanistan. nobody counts as a gorilla unless they do this when their vital interests are at stake. even today , whatever be the media soundbytes I am sure atleast 3 marine MEUs are being kept on high readiness should a force landing be decided on, along with army units on the jordan and turkey front. sure it might take 2 months to move everything into place.....but they wont hesitate to pull the trigger if it comes to that. thats a gorilla behaviour.

Austin wrote: Can Iraq today claim to better then they were under Saddam after US invasion of its country and 10 years of occupation ?

Did all the US money spent made the life of ordinary Iraqi and Afghanistan people all the more better today ?

If any thing else it made the US poor by couple of trillion of $$ and got great loss of Life to their own people.

Now enter new reports surfacing from the Russian Defense Ministry on orders of Vladimir Putin that the largest military ‘state of full combat readiness’ drill is taking place with around 160,000 troops ordered to report from all corners of the military. Specifically, the translated reports detail how Putin is calling together not just Armed Forces of Russia troops, but all forms of long-range aircraft, 70 naval ships, bomber and fighter aircraft, and so on.

According to a syndicated Russian announcement:

“On Friday, during a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu Russian, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an unexpected military drill, urging all forces to enter a state of full combat readiness on the night of July 13.”

In other words, these reports says that Putin is essentially assembling the entire military in the largest such event since the Soviet Union. This is coming in from the Russian language version of Forbes and other Russian sources translated to English.

Is this massive ‘state of full combat readiness’ initiated on July 13th just a training exercise with no further intention, or is it related to to the attack by Israel on Russian-made missiles in Syria?

JwalaMukhi wrote:

Austin wrote: Can Iraq today claim to better then they were under Saddam after US invasion of its country and 10 years of occupation ?

Did all the US money spent made the life of ordinary Iraqi and Afghanistan people all the more better today ?

If any thing else it made the US poor by couple of trillion of $$ and got great loss of Life to their own people.

It is missing the point. The point of intervention and occupancy is not to make life better for the occupied. They are being reshaped so the occupied peoples, stew in their own juices and remain confined within, without capability of exporting their troubles to the occupiers.

This is not morality question of whether lives have become better or bashing of unkil's morality. There are already many number of them who make a living out of bashing unkil even in unkilland itself (chomosky et.al). That is different topic.

The question is what is cost/benefit ratio from the perspective of a would be quisling to Russia. How it benefits a would be quisling to depend on Russia. IOW what would a aspiring quisling of Russia expect to achieve, by seeing what happened to others who were supported by Russia. What are the actual capabilities and competencies that Russia can provide other than military hardware/expertise? This kind of uni-dimensional support of just arms/armaments are attractive mainly to dictators whose interests may or may not coincide with the peoples they dictate to.

JwalaMukhi wrote:The question is what is cost/benefit ratio from the perspective of a would be quisling to Russia. How it benefits a would be quisling to depend on Russia. IOW what would a aspiring quisling of Russia expect to achieve, by seeing what happened to others who were supported by Russia. What are the actual capabilities and competencies that Russia can provide other than military hardware/expertise? This kind of uni-dimensional support of just arms/armaments are attractive mainly to dictators whose interests may or may not coincide with the peoples they dictate to.

PARIS — More than two-thirds of French people are against the country taking part in international military action in Syria, according to a newspaper poll published Saturday.

The survey for French daily Le Figaro showed the country's opposition to military action against the Damascus regime has increased markedly since the end of August.

Asked whether they would be in favour of French participation -- which President Francois Hollande strongly supports -- 68 percent of respondents said no.

That was an increase of nine percentage points on a survey published on August 29.

The survey also showed that 64 percent oppose all international military action in Syria -- irrespective of French involvement -- compared with just 45 percent on August 29.