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zondag 27 september 2015

Russia in the Middle-East 2

Russia, Iran, Iraq & Syria setting up ‘joint information center’ to coordinate anti-ISIS operations

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© Stringer
© Stringer / Reuters 
Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria have agreed to establish a joint information center in Baghdad to coordinate their operations against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) militants, according to sources.
“The main goal of the center will be gathering, processing and analyzing current information about the situation in the Middle East – primarily for fighting IS,” a military-diplomatic source told Russian news agencies on Saturday.
The information center in the Iraqi capital will be headed by an officer of one of the founding countries on a rotating basis. Rotation will take place every three months. According to the source, Iraq will run the center for the next three months.
Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria may also use the information center to coordinate anti-IS combat plans, the source said, adding that the agreement is a milestone for uniting the region’s countries in the war on terrorism – primarily on Islamic State militants.
The Iraqi army’s joint operations command confirmed the agreement on Saturday, saying that it came with “increased Russian concern about the presence of thousands of terrorists from Russia undertaking criminal acts with Daesh [Islamic State],” Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced in New York on Friday that Iraq has not received any Russian military advisers to assist Baghdad’s operations.
On Friday, the US TV-Channel Fox News reported the four countries were establishing a “coordination cell” in Baghdad, but Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Vladimir Putin, denied this. “We have already said there are many reports which are not true,” he told news agencies.
Recent media reports indicate Russia is boosting its cooperation with Syria and other Middle East countries in the fight against terrorism.
Western media say Russia is sending warplanes and tanks to Syria and building a military base in Latakia, but Russian officials deny this, saying Moscow is continuing to supply Syria with weapons in accordance with bilateral contracts.
RT  ✔@RT_com
Russian military advisers work in Syria, longtime military cooperation ‘no secret’ - Moscow http://on.rt.com/6qxb 
4:10 PM - 9 Sep 2015

“Russia has never made a secret of military-technical cooperation with Syria. Our country has long been supplying weapons and military equipment to Syria under the existing bilateral contracts," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on September 9.
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Syria hopes that Russia’s counter-terror policy will be more effective than the US-led anti-IS coalition.
“Moscow is acting within the framework of international law, respecting the sovereignty of our country and in coordination with Syria,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told RT. “We do not hide anything under the table. We regard Russia as our friend and strategic ally which is honest in its actions.”

Russia has long insisted on the creation of an international anti-terrorist coalition, to coordinate the efforts with the Syrian Army in combating the jihadists on the ground.


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Russia in the Middle-East

MIDDLE EAST

Iraq liaising with Russia, Iran and Syria against ISIL

Iraq says its military officials are engaged in intelligence and security cooperation with all three nations in Baghdad.

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The statement, following Russia's increasing military involvement in Syria, puts more pressure on the US secretary of state [AFP]
The statement, following Russia's increasing military involvement in Syria, puts more pressure on the US secretary of state [AFP]
Iraq has said that its military officials are engaged in intelligence and security cooperation in Baghdad with Russia, Iran, and Syria to counter the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a pact that could raise concerns in the US.
A statement from the Iraqi military's joint operations command on Saturday said the cooperation had come "with increased Russian concern about the presence of thousands of terrorists from Russia undertaking criminal acts with [ISIL]".
The move comes as at the same time Russia has stepped up its military involvement in Syria in recent weeks, while pressing for Damascus to be included in international efforts to fight ISIL, a demand Washington rejects.
The announcement also reflects Iran's increasing influence just four years after the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
Russian news agency Interfax quoted a military-diplomatic source in Moscow as saying the Baghdad coordination centre would be led on a rotating basis by officers of the four countries, starting with Iraq.
The source added a committee might be created in Baghdad to plan military operations and control armed forces units in the fight against ISIL.
Iraqi officials on Friday had denied reports of a coordination unit in Baghdad set up by Russian, Syrian, and Iranian military commanders aimed at working with Iranian-backed Shia militias in Iraq.
The armed groups, some of which have fought alongside troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, are seen as a critical weapon in Baghdad's battle against ISIL.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in New York on Friday that his country had not received any Russian military advisers to help its forces but called for the US-led coalition to bomb more ISIL targets in Iraq.
Russian demand
Despite more than $20bn in US aid and training, Iraq's army has nearly collapsed twice in the last year in the face of advances by ISIL, which controls large swaths of territory in the north and west, as well as in Syria.
Western officials have said US Secretary of State John Kerry wants to launch a new effort at the UN General Assembly this week to try to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
Diplomacy has taken on new urgency in light of Russia's military build-up in support of Assad and a refugee crisis that has spilled into Europe.
Critics have urged US President Barack Obama to be more decisive in the Middle East, particularly towards the Syrian conflict and say lack of a clear US policy has given ISIL opportunities to expand
A Russian foreign ministry official told Interfax on Friday that Moscow could "theoretically" join the US-led coalition against ISIL if Damascus were included in international efforts to combat the armed group and any international military operation in Syria had a UN mandate.


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Idealism


VIDEO: Why Idealism Isn’t Just for Dreamers 

Posted on Sep 26, 2015
In today’s political world, idealism is seen as the enemy of realism and getting things done. But, journalist Gary Younge argues, idealism is absolutely necessary for society to continue progressing into the world we want to see. As he explains in this video from The Guardian, it’s what makes things that seem impossible today the reality of the future.
“Without idealism,” says Younge, “there is no vision or ambition. If politics is the art of the possible, then radicalism must entail the desire to imagine other possibilities.”
—Posted by Roisin Davis




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Paul Craig Roberts 121

Washington Represents The Most Concentrated Evil In Human History

September 27, 2015 | Categories: Interviews | Tags: | Print This Article Print This Article
Washington Represents The Most Concentrated Evil In Human History
Paul Craig Roberts Interviewed by Shadow of Truth
Part One


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Slavery in the U.S.

Slavery Is Alive And Well In America

Slavery Is Alive And Well In America


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NATO WANTS WAR 45

NATO Is Marching Towards Russia, and They Have No Idea What Awaits Them

America is fully aware that the way to draw Russia into a conflict is to push forward towards Russia’s borders. In time, Russia will be forced to defend its right to exist, and when this happens, western powers will not know what hit them

Stanislav Mishin Subscribe to Stanislav Mishin
(Mat Rodina)
  OPINION  Mon, Mar 23 | 43,883  220

Many have tried to fight Russia but few have succeeded 

This article originally appeared at Mat Rodina
American politicians in particular and European politicians in general are some of the most ignorant fools when the issue comes to anything outside their own borders. When it comes to Russia, it is an engima wrapped in a mystery… but only because, dear readers, no one has every bothered to try to understand Russians and the Russian world view.

One important historical fact about Russia is that Russia is a unique civilizational empire built upon defense not offense. What this means is that historically, Russia does not start the wars, or series of wars (though it may strike first in a confrontation that is punctuated by a series of wars). In Russian history, Russian leaders, since Russia’s baptism to Orthodoxy, have tried hard to avoid war with our neighbors, though just about every time this has failed. In parallel, as much as we do not like war, and in Orthodoxy killing in combat is still a sin as we do not have the heresy of Just War, we are very very good at killing and destroying. A paradox, but it is the reality.

This was so profound that in the summer of 1914, the Tsar Nicholas II, when war was eminent, even haulted mobilization to try and defuse the situation one more time and talk the Austrians and Germans out of what would become the great tragedy of early 20th century.

The problems with modern, and in truth historical, Western politicos is that these guys are absolute fools with no understanding of the Russian psyche and are sure to be the cause of WW3, be it intentional or accidental. They are projecting their psyche onto Russians.

What this means is that they are projecting a typical negative reinforcement mentality. Europe and the US are societies built on constant aggression towards neighbors. Aggression like that is staved by building up a credible large counter force of allies and blocks, which causes fear of defeat and deescalation…your typical European balance of forces approach.

Russia is a defensive empire, that is, most wars or series of wars were not started by Russians but by enemies attacking or massing on Russia’s borders. After 800 years of almost non-stop aggression by Europeans, Russia does not tolerate any enemy massing on her borders in what appears as a preparation for invasion or the creation of large scales basing areas as would be a US neo-con dominated Ukraine.This is also coupled with the Russian approach of not abandoning Russians (ethnic or cultural) and allies, as opposed to Anglo society where back stabbing allies when the opportunity to earn exists, is a prized skill.

As such, this is a spiral approach. Any escalation by the foreigners will lead to a direct escalation by Russia and not deescalation. Balance of power does not work when Russia feels her survival threatened. Enough of an enemy escalation in the hope of forcing Russia to back off will generate an exact opposite effect in generating a first strike and total war, as Russia feels her life and existence is threatened by the enemy.

Nothing like putting Russian society in a threatened siege mentality to force the individual chaotic Russian nature to crystallize into one direction: total destruction of the threat and the states that generate it.

Russia’s army may be only 1 million but the ready reserve is over 20 million with a follow capability of total mobilization of over 40 more million, and maybe more if one starts counting female combatants and one should.

Last time the factories were run by children, old people and women. Now with massive automation, even more of society is freed up to fight. Since Russian civilization is not just land but a cultural idea/philosophy it generates an absolute fanatical loyalty. This is a loyalty to a culture that allows the temporary surrender of land for time in the understanding that this will then be used, combined with non-stop partisan warfare, to grind down the invader and  decimate him deep in the Russian interior, before marching on his cities and burning them to the ground in revenge.

Europe needs to find some German or Romanian veterans and ask them how much fun they had. Mamal Kurgan, the highest hill in Volgograd (Stalingrad) a 1,5 km sq area had 35,000 identifiable bodies on it, half of them German, after 4 months of fighting. That is more than both sides lost on the beaches of Normandy. In WW2 the Germans were on average having 1 soldier killed every 30 seconds. Figure 3-4 times as many wounded.

The present serving armies of NATO would be used up in 3-4 months. That would amount to almost a million and a half dead and wounded.

NATO would collapse. Greeks would refuse to fight. Serbs would be a war in the middle of all this. Cypriots would refuse to fight. Turkey would likely also refuse to die in a war they could only lose from. Bulgaria would probably have a revolution. Romania and Italy and Spain and Portugal would not long suffer heavy casualties before their unpopular governments were overthrown. France more than likely also. US couldn’t fully concentrate their army as they would have to release their grip on all other sectors which in turn would be blowing up.

As for a second front, that is, if America was to invade the Russian far east, well, outside of grabbing Sakhalin and Vladivastok and Khabarovsk, all of which will cost hundreds of thousands of corpses, a US invasion force would be faced with a march of 3,000 km, or about 1,800 miles to the nearest major oil fields and forced to cover a land area larger than the continental United States, in wilderness terrain, with Russian partisans and the very cold Siberian winter (8 months long) filling the corpse lists on a daily basis. In other words, outside of a temporary land grab, nothing to fear.

Also if things got bad China would step in knowing they are next on the hit list, and thus Siberia would be fairly safe from US forces.

The reality, Americans, Germans, and foolish Poles, is, Russians will fight and 152 million people will fight to the end, not because Putin sits in power, or because we fear the enemy, but because love of Russia, the very idea of Russia, will drive fanatical, well trained and armed with advanced weaponry resistance. Russians will fight regardless of who sits the throne, because we are not fighting for the leader but for Christ and for Russia, the land He gave us as the Third Rome. What exactly will you be fighting for?



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U.S. WANTS WAR 9

US ‘preparing’ for hybrid warfare with Russia in Baltics – report

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Soldiers take part in an exercise of the U.S. Army's Global Response Force in Hohenfels near Regensburg © Michael Dalder
Soldiers take part in an exercise of the U.S. Army's Global Response Force in Hohenfels near Regensburg © Michael Dalder / Reuters 
US has been getting ready for a possible war involving Russia in Europe’s Baltic States, German media reports. The report says all the NATO war games organized in the region by Washington have been intended to prepare various military response scenarios.
The Pentagon has shifted its military thinking when it comes to Moscow, selecting Russia’s direct neighbors in the Baltic region as the battleground, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten (DWN) writes. 
What the US sees playing out is hybrid warfare, which employs irregular troops and focuses on destabilizing the region via mass rallies as well as cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, according to the newspaper. 
The conflict in Ukraine has been used by the US as a catalyst for more preparations: “Russia’s invasion of Eastern Ukraine urged the US to dust off its emergency plans. They were pretty outdated,” former US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Michele Flournoy, was quoted as saying.
Moscow, however, has repeatedly denied playing a role in the Ukrainian conflict. Despite repeated accusations by Kiev and its Western backers that Russia was supporting the rebelling eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk with weapons and manpower, no evidence has been presented to support the claims.
Estonian soldiers take part in NATO military exercise Hedgehog 2015 at the Tapa training range in Estonia © Ints Kalnins
Estonian soldiers take part in NATO military exercise Hedgehog 2015 at the Tapa training range in Estonia © Ints Kalnins / Reuters 
Nevertheless, since the crisis in Ukraine began, the number of war games held by NATO in Europe has surged. All of the military exercises have focused on a response to a situation in which Russia presumably takes over the Baltic region. 
According to the German newspaper, a “Russian threat” has been used as an excuse to justify increased military spending in eastern European NATO countries and provide a reason for US troops to be stationed in Europe.

READ MORE: 24 generals from 13 NATO countries gather in Latvia to train joint operations

DWN adds that there are 40,000 US soldiers in Germany alone, with additional American tanks and artillery on their way to the Baltic States. 
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So far, the Pentagon has only war games in mind for the Baltic States. However, nuclear options are also being examined. Recent reports have suggested that US nuclear weapons could soon be coming to Germany, despite a 2009 decision to withdraw the old American nuclear arsenal. 
Last week there were media reports that the Pentagon was reviewing and updating its contingency plans for a war with Russia for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Given the security environment, given the actions of Russia, it has become apparent that we need to make sure to update the plans that we have in response to any potential aggression against any NATO allies,” a senior defense official familiar with the plan told Foreign Policy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Italian media in June that such “scaremongering” should not be taken seriously, stressing that Russia’s military is “not global, offensive, or aggressive,” and that it has “virtually no bases abroad.” He added that the few that do exist abroad are remnants of its Soviet past.

READ MORE: NATO stages huge airborne drill in Europe, says 'acting in purely defensive manner' (VIDEO)

“I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply taking advantage of people’s fears with regard to Russia. They just want to play the role of front-line countries that should receive some supplementary military, economic, financial or some other aid,” Putin said at the time.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in August that the US has boosted its troop presence at Russia’s borders to achieve “dominance” in Europe, adding that the military buildup is “counter-productive” and serves as a “financial burden” for member states, as it “distracts” the alliance from dealing with other threats.
Russian troops are at the Donguz military base in the Orenburg Region, the site of the troops practical operations stage, a part of the Tsentr-2015 command post exercise © Sergey Mamontov
Russian troops are at the Donguz military base in the Orenburg Region, the site of the troops practical operations stage, a part of the Tsentr-2015 command post exercise © Sergey Mamontov / RIA Novosti 
After reports of “American missiles put in a certain location and about certain ammunition depots in Eastern European countries and the Baltic,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister, Anatoly Antonov, stated that NATO is provoking Russia into an “arms race.” 
Both Russia and NATO have been staging military drills recently, with both closely watching each other.
In August, the US military launched the largest NATO airborne drills in Europe since the end of the Cold War in what it called an effort to enhance the “security and stability” of the region. 
About 5,000 soldiers from 11 NATO member states are participating in “simultaneous multinational airborne operations”which started last week and will last for almost a month, the US army said in a statement.
Earlier in the month, the US deployed two MQ-1 Predator long-range unmanned surveillance drones and 70 airmen to Latvia for a training mission.
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NATO’s drills were answered by Russia’s own, when more than 95,000 troops belonging to Russia and its regional allies launched the annual Center exercises spanning from the Volga River to Siberia. The large-scale drills were the biggest Russia has seen since the Cold War. 
Back in May, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia jointly asked for permanent NATO bases, alleging that Russia has the capacity to invade them within four hours of ordering an attack. Moscow lashed out at the move, saying it contravenes the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act.

READ MORE: Ukraine and NATO sign agreements on strengthening defense and technical cooperation

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