Kerry threatens a Security Council silliness.

  Henri_Rousseau_-_Mandrill_in_the_Jungle

"Staffan de Mistura, the UN's special envoy for the Syrian crisis, appealed for fighters from the rebel group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham – formerly known as the Nusra Front – to be able to leave Aleppo with their weapons.

Eastern Aleppo, held by rebel forces, has been subjected to a constant campaign of air strikes by Syrian and Russian forces in recent weeks. About 275,000 people still live in the eastern part of the city.

He said he was prepared to personally accompany the jihadists out of the city if it would stop the fighting.

Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, backed the plan "for the sake of saving Aleppo."

The jihadist faction, however, has already rejected the proposal as a "surrender".

Russia and Syria say their forces are attacking Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. Western powers dispute this, pointing to the high proportion of civilians being killed.

Mr de Mistura said only about 900 of the estimated 8,000 fighters in eastern Aleppo were members of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham."  BBC

———–

I once asked the boys and girls from the WINEP and ISA/Kagan thinkeries where they got their information.  That is an awkward habit I have that can be summed up as "how do you know that?"  In the case of these citadels of exalted brooding the information is almost all sourced to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (an activity of MI-6).  This of course makes all the numbers suspect.  Nobody knows how many civilians and rebel fighters are in Aleppo. 

The UN will investigate Russian activities in Syria? So what?  The Russians will veto anything they don't agree with.  That's real life folks.

The war party in the US is growing steadily in the halls of supposed power.  The American people, to the extent that they think about distractions from actual life, do not want war with anyone.  Least of all do they want war with Russia, but, it may happen, provoked by the chauvinists in both US political parties. 

The Israelis now realize that the Russians have already shot down a couple of their aircraft and that they now do not command the skies over Syria.  This is a game changer.

Natanyahu has asked Putin to mediate the Israeli/Palestinian dispute.  This is another game changer.  The US and especially our useless, arrogant and impotent State Department has clutched the ownership rights over the Palestine Question to its bosom for decades refusing to let the Europeans have any role at all. 

The war party; McCain, Lindsay Graham, their staffers et al are doing their best to provoke a war in the insane belief that the Russians will back away from us before that happens and that if they don't back away we can destroy them without being destroyed.

I am old.  I lived through the great days of the US.  I am ready for the cataclysm that may come soon.  pl  

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37590014

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56 Responses to Kerry threatens a Security Council silliness.

  1. David Lentini says:

    I am old. I lived through the great days of the US. I am ready for the cataclysm that may come soon.
    I am not (quite) so old. But I try to follow the advice of an retired GB whom I used to attend Mass with: “Go to confession. Keep your magazines loaded.” I pray every day.

  2. Anna says:

    The lunatics are inciting for a war with Russia (while, of course, planning to stay in their comfortable offices for the duration of the glorious war):https://consortiumnews.com/2016/10/07/key-neocon-calls-on-us-to-oust-putin/
    Carl Gershman, another “F—ing idiot” a la Feith, “has called for the U.S. government to “summon the will” to engineer the overthrow of Russian President Vladimir Putin.” Here is the foundation of this idiot’s career: “In 1968, he worked in the research department of B’nai B’rith, and in 1972 he served on the Governing Council of the American Jewish Committee. From 1969–1974, Gershman successively served as Director of Research, Co-Chairman, and Executive Director of the Youth Committee for Peace in the Middle East… In 1972 he and Irving Howe edited a collection, “Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East”…
    Infestation. Sigh.

  3. adam filipovic says:

    Its really looking serious, isnt it?

  4. A Pols says:

    You know, Colonel, your post raises interesting points.
    Do Netanyahu and others turn to Russia now because they think Russia is stronger than the U.S. ? I don’t think that’s it, but maybe it’s that they think Putin’s got the steadier hands…
    And by the way, I truly value the information and insights this blog provides me.

  5. Walker says:

    Colonel, if you are ready for that cataclysm you’re a better man than me.

  6. Jack says:

    Sir
    There is a great complacency in our country with respect to a military conflict with Russia. People have been conditioned by the rhetoric of “the greatest nation on earth” to believe we can prevail in any military conflict and there will be no death and destruction here at home.
    Recently in a conversation about our coming election with a good friend who has always voted Democrat I was struck by how while she acknowledged the Borg Queen’s track record as a warmonger, she was more afraid that Trump seemed more crazy and may engage in war. The media campaign to create the perception that Trump is Les Déplorables is causing significant dissonance and uncertainty on the part of some. IMO, most Americans can’t entertain the thought that we could be engaged in military conflict where we could face direct repercussions at home.
    It’s in this environment when the war party led by the Borg Queen could seriously miscalculate as their core belief system of unchallenged American military hegemony can’t countenance anyone standing up to them.
    Since the media attention is on the outrage du jour on something Trump said it will be very interesting to see what happens if R+6 roll Aleppo before election day.

  7. ked says:

    Don’t despair, Col. We are experiencing growing pains of many sorts.
    You (& others, of course) did good duty getting us this far. I think we are observing the angst of the old order, hanging on too long (as is ever their wont).
    Please keep up the fine analysis… minimize stress over the near term outcomes.

  8. jerseycityjoan says:

    While we may still be a great nation — I certainly want us to be — we cannot ever be a great nation in the way we were in a few decades ago.
    We all need to realize that and make peace with this fact.

  9. OIFVet says:

    Colonel: about the Russians having shot down two Israeli aircraft, does this refer to the Syrian claim of having shot down Israeli aircraft? I haven’t been able to locate any proof of that, only claims.

  10. Anonymous says:

    You won’t find your nemesis so soon, Col. lang. The russians will stand no chance. In place of the old and weak Shock and Awe, Hillary will deliver a powerful new doctrine called the Cough and Faint. The Five Eyes will be prescripted Hillary glasses for pentaplopia so they can collectivelly help Hillary walk over Russia, and while shaking their heads in glorious seizure, Russia will be spat on to Diluvian perdition and crushed into smitherens under the mighty butt of the fainting grandma. A single C battery will fall from somewhere inside her gigantic pants and hit Putin to ignominious death.

  11. jerseycityjoan says:

    I was in a hurry and posted my first comment about America being great without making my real point, sorry:
    The elites and the politicians who continue to see us as the world’s savior and defender with some kind of permanent immunity from unsolvable problems or permanent consequences aren’t doing anybody a favor.
    How can we save the world when clearly we are not even saving ourselves these days?
    That’s why Sanders and Trump got all those votes. People are worried and disgusted. And our national deficit is $19.3 trillion. Looking for another field for another round of trillion dollar fighting is beyond crazy; it’s suicidal for us as a country.

  12. apol says:

    On civilians in Aleppo Thierry Miessan just wrote: “Currently, the Western part of the city houses between 1.4 and 1.5 million inhabitants who are partisans of the Republic, and the Eastern part houses between 25,000 and 30,000 people. ”
    http://www.voltairenet.org/article193570.html

  13. I’d like to remind the youngsters here that this willingness to wrestle the Russian bear has strong roots in the Cold War. Many of us old cold warriors remember how close we danced to nuclear destruction. We did the duck and cover in grammar school, looked through ads for home fallout shelters. When we joined the military, we were resigned that any dust up in the Fulda Gap would inevitably lead to a nuclear exchange.
    I remember the CG of the 25th Infantry Division telling us that if the balloon went up in Europe, we would be lifted into the streets and sewers of Frankfurt to stem the tide of the 2nd and 3rd echelons. We managed to train for this in Hawaii… with great seriousness.
    I also remember the lengths the Reagan Administration went to to stop the airing of “The Day After,” a movie about the aftermath of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. At the time, the Administration was trying to convince us that nuclear war was survivable and winnable. All we needed was enough shovels.
    It appears this idiocy is in our blood.

  14. BabelFish says:

    If Russia/China being in the ascendant means they fund Bibi-land’s multi-billion dollar habit for military weaponry, I just might be OK with it. But I have children and grandkids and would not want to condemn them to pay for my generation’s idiocy.

  15. different clue says:

    Sanders is out of the game.
    Trump is still in the game.
    I hope the Trump Team is smart enough to have some people reading these threads and also the threads at Naked Capitalism . . . but at the very least these threads. Failing that, I hope somebody here knows somebody who knows somebody . . . who can get specific word to high up the Trump information ladder.
    Why? Because Trump has a debate coming up this Sunday, I think. If he were to start with an introductory statement ( I believe the candidates get those) and if he were to make his statement a very clear and unambiguous promise that his defense/offense policy is No First Use Ever of ANY Nuke, whether Tactical OR Strategic, people would hear that statement. If he also PROMISED , if elected, to seek an IMMEDIATE TRUCE to ANY war with Russia that Obama had started before Inauguration Day, he might reach a lot of people.
    If Trump makes those two promises if elected in his statement, I will vote for him based on those two extinction-avoidance promises.
    Now . . . is Trump smart enough and disciplined enough to make that promise and keep re-making it throughout the coming Town Hall debate?

  16. onikok says:

    apol,
    it seems that either Thierry or Wikipedia has gotten it wrong regarding number of inhabitants in opposition controlled areas / east. WP shows numbers of 250,000 – 300,000.

  17. Degringolade says:

    I wrote this over at my place this morning. Might even say that it applies here.
    Gotta take a breath
    Look, everyone knows that the deal is going down.
    What everyone is worried about is that it might not go their way.
    Well, I got new for all you pilgrims. All of you are right. It won’t go your way.
    No reason to stop anything. Even if shit goes seriously south, do you think that you aren’t going to have to put time and energy into the system to make the new way work? Do you think that the energy that you put in now is going to be wasted?
    Look, life is series of decisions and accommodations. Some of what you sow gets reaped. Some is carried away on the wind. Get over it.
    All you can do is keep trying, don’t plan on winning them all. Try to learn from your failures. Try to reinforce your successes.
    Things are going to go awry in the none-to-distant future. Stay on your feet, keep your wits about you and soldier on.

  18. Tol Tapen says:

    Well, here is a funny story about Putin. No way to verify anything really but the the story goes that in the 90s he use to work as an arbitrator for the mafia gangs of St. Petersburg.
    As far as the job description is concerned, there are two major points:
    1. The arbitrator’s judgments must be perceived as fair by the overwhelming majority of the gangsters.
    2. The arbitrator carries a big gun and must be able to enforce his judgments if any (or both) of the conflicting parties disagrees with it.
    Given that national governments are really just the biggest gangs in their land (at least from the historical POV), I think Putin is well qualified for the job.

  19. Cortes says:

    The encouraging thing for non-US people is, I think, the evidence that rational, sentient commentators like our host and TTG are aware of the perils of what Paul Craig Roberts’s harping on about “insouciance ” really entails.
    Personal note: my daughter turned 25 last month and I’d rather like to see her grandkids.
    Apologies for mawkishness.

  20. BraveNewWorld says:

    The Israelis are all in a lather thinking that Obama is going to allow a UNSC resolution thorough that might actually reference the fact that the settlements are illegal. Of course the fact they told the US to got F it’s self less than a week after Obama delivered on the massive new welfare check for Israel might give them pause to worry. But what Netanyahu is up to is pretending to talk peace with Putin to find off action in the UNSC until the new prez is signed in then he can tell Putin to get stuffed.
    http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-official-obamas-settlement-critique-an-alibi-for-planned-anti-israel-moves/
    http://www.timesofisrael.com/security-council-to-discuss-settlements-as-obstacle-to-peace/

  21. Peter L says:

    Well, it seems Trump is out of the game.
    It was a good run. What was he thinking?

  22. BraveNewWorld says:

    I was wondering about this as well. If true it really would be a game changer.

  23. Brunswick says:

    As Nick Turse notes, the Win/Loss record for US Military action, isn’t that “exceptional”,
    http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176191/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_killing_people%2C_breaking_things%2C_and_america%27s_winless_wars/
    The illusionary “belief” that the US win’s all it’s wars is “exceptional”, given the track record.
    What is “exceptional”, is that the impacts and consequences of the “win/loss” record almost never touches US soil.

  24. mike allen says:

    Whatever happened to those nuclear vets and citizens of Nevada and Utah that came down with leukemia, thyroid cancer and other _____?
    In the early sixties I served with a vet of the tests at Nevada Test Site in 1957. He and several thousand others did tactical maneuvers within minutes after the detonation and not far from ground zero. I lost contact with him but heard later from a mutual friend that he had developed bone cancer and was medically discharged. I hope he or his family got some restitution.
    By the way, after hearing Governor Mike Pence at the VP debate, he should be added to the war party along with McCain and Graham.

  25. different clue says:

    Peter L,
    Well . . . I remember opining on one of these threads about a year ago . . . ( and with enough brute-force iron-butt research I could find it) . . . that Trump would end up “letting down millions and breaking millions of hearts”.
    And I guess that is what he will do . . . in the end.

  26. F5F5F5 says:

    I don’t understand all the talk about Bibi or Erdogan turning to Russia.
    IMHO, chutzpah just doesn’t pay with the Russians, and Putin always issues a warning before he hits.
    Also, all this war agitation makes me think that one faceless faction of the Borg is desperately trying to remain relevant, whilst another is eagerly waiting for the musical chairs song to begin.

  27. Imagine says:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/07/russia-says-it-may-reopen-soviet-era-military-bases-in-cuba-and/
    Russia is looking to re-open base in Vietnam and esp. in Cuba. US, in case anyone isn’t aware, is basing missiles in Romania and Poland that can quickly be refitted with nukes and hit Moscow in seconds in a “Reverse Cuban Missile Crisis”. I predict Russia is going to respond tit-for-tat like the old days, and base nuke cruise missiles in Cuba that can hit Washington in seconds. Tit for tat, guys.
    Here’s the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (1987 INF) that America is violating:
    https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/INFtreaty
    Again, AFAIK, America actually started the first Cuban Missile Crisis by basing Jupiter missiles in Italy and Turkey.
    The neocon Zionists are Wiley Coyote. Suuuperrrr genius. Playing Russian Roulette with the whole country. Watch any RoadRunner movie to see how this all turns out.

  28. Outrage Beyond says:

    I have the same question about Russia shooting down Israeli aircraft.
    There are any number of articles in which the Syrians claim to have shot down two Israeli aircraft (type not specified).
    Likewise, there are articles claiming the Russians have “fired” at Israeli aircraft.
    Other articles claim shoot-downs of Israeli drones.
    In a similar vein, there is the claim of killing Israeli (and other) officers in the “command room” via cruise missiles.
    The common thread is that all these aircraft shoot-downs have been denied by Israel, and there has been total radio silence regarding any further news on the “command room” and its supposedly erstwhile commanders.
    To cite the main text above, how do you know that?

  29. Ghostship says:

    “WP shows numbers of 250,000 – 300,000.”
    Is that a reference to The Washington Post? If so, you should get used to the idea that many privately-owned American newspapers are just as propagandist as state-owned RT and Sputnik News.

  30. kooshy says:

    Is all because of learning we are the invincible and exceptional, I also hope we don’t have to find out in a hard way.

  31. Serge says:

    Serious reports of as many as 1,000 Ahrar Al Sham fighters defecting to “Jund Al Aqsa” amidst the widespread infighting going on over past 48 hrs. No commentator I’ve read appears quite what to make of this group, given its relative obscurity up until the past few months when it suddenly rose to the forefront amongst the rebels. IMO they are and have been an IS front, full penetrated by IS, similar to how IS took over regions bordering the Golan in 2015 by causing mass defections from other groups including Nusra. The fighting really does appear to be serious, the collapse of Ahrar al sham-SAA lines near hama due to presumed calling back of troops to core areas by the latter being reminiscent of the IS-rebel infighting in ’13-14

  32. b says:

    @onikok
    – wikipedia is a worse source than the UN.
    The UN (Egeland & Co)and other once said “nearly 100,000” people were besieged in Darayya. That number slowly went down to 8,000 civilians. When the “rebels gave up there about 1,000 of those and some 1,500 civilians coming out – the immediate families of the fighters. That was all that was there.
    Aleppo will be similar. No current video from east-Aleppo shows a crowd of more than two dozen (mostly jihadis in civil cloth) in “demonstrations”. The streets are empty.
    As for war mongering – Clapper and Obama accused Russia of being “behind” the hack on the DNC based on “sensitivity and scope” of the hack. But sensitivity and scope are more a factor of patience, luck and the size of the hacked database. You try ten-twenty targets and find one open to the usual tools and there you go. Could have been dozens of other probably more worthwhile.
    Then we come to attribution which is nearly impossible unless you control the whole internet. Any trace you find mind have been left with the purpose of deceiving. There is no way to be sure unless one gets a plausible, hard confession from the culprit.

  33. jld says:

    re the movies, “Threads” which is the British “day after” has been scrubbed from Youtube where there was several full copies a few years ago but is still on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/18781528 and Dailymotion (though in a shortened version there).

  34. jld says:

    Does this mean that cataclysm is better than mutiny?

  35. jld says:

    What’s “WP” ?

  36. trinlae says:

    Yes, the “you broke it, you own it” regime change foreign policy model isn’t turning out to be the big money-maker once envisioned.

  37. trinlae says:

    6 ft under, along with Richard Feynman himself, but it almost sounds poignantly quaint compared to the complex culling Fukushima promises.

  38. Old Microbiologist says:

    Being particularly cynical, I have been convinced Trump is a “false” candidate and is part of an elaborate Machiavellian plan for HRC to basically run unopposed. I fully expect at least one and perhaps more, October surprises. HIs behavior at the debate and failure to pounce on the low hanging fruit bears that out. My (albeit cynical) bet is Trump withdraws the last week before the election. He has nothing to lose by doing that. He is another egomaniacal miscreant and lives by his own rules (something he shares with Washington plutocrats). Alternatively, we start a hot war with Russia (same thing happens if Trump withdraws). Increased rhetoric about election and hacking and basically a throw in either way. The upshot is HRC was chosen back in 2008 to step back and let BHO be President so as to not let the US economic catastrophe devolve into a race war. The only thing I can see against this concept is most people in Washington just aren’t very smart, are particularly nasty, and incapable of any positive ethics. To pull this off requires a lot of smart yet nasty people playing nice together. We have no precedent for that.
    I cannot believe these idiots actually think Russia will back down. I guess no one in ashington has read history. Being married to a Russian gives me a very close look into the Russian character (plus extended family and a vast array of Russian friends) and I can say they never ever back down nor do they apologize. They also never make empty threats and in fact only act as planned. They will negotiate to the end but will have things in motion for the Plan B and they always expect the worst. I think Murphy must have been a Russian because they operate with that in mind for everything. Every Russian I have met is disgusted with the American attitude of aggression and exceptionalism having never fought a war on home soil. Those memories are still fresh in Russian minds. Of course it goes far beyond that but basically we are toast if we think we can beat them.

  39. LeaNder says:

    dc, read Trump’s foreign policy speech carefully, and then reflect on how much you emphasize (hope for change?) some things while ignoring others.
    I am disappointed by the Obama administration’s campaign memes versus the unfolding reality, but I surely don’t believe that Obama created ISIS, while I am at least somewhat willing to consider that he was partly driven by events.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/us/politics/transcript-trump-foreign-policy.html?_r=0
    Our nuclear weapons arsenal, our ultimate deterrent, has been allowed to atrophy and is desperately in need of modernization and renewal. And it has to happen immediately.
    It’s already happening, isn’t it?
    **********
    What I would like to understand a lot better then I do is the larger genesis, ideally including gray area activities, plus drives in the US and Europe that led up to the confrontation in the Ukraine.
    Other programs in the ME? Their history?

  40. LeaNder says:

    record almost never touches US soil.
    I may not understand.
    But I am not sure if it never impacts or touches US soil. Maybe not as warfare on US ground, but surely, ok vaguely, in other shapes and forms.

  41. LeaNder says:

    OIFVet, I didn’t find any proof on the other side either. But, does Israel belong to the 60+ US led coalition? Could they confirm it, if they aren’t involved officially?
    There are no doubt a certain amount of rumors about Israeli involvement in what I would define as gray areas. Definitively humanitarian support for rebels and suggested military support for rebels on the other side of the Golan Heights too.

  42. OIFVet, BraveNewWorld, OutrageBeyond,
    The Russians are trying to finesse imperatives which are inherently in tension, and very acutely so.
    They know quite well that they are dealing with people who think that, if confronted, Russia will back down.
    Precisely the ‘insane’ mentality which makes so many in Washington believe that, however, means that they are particularly ill-equipped for the – commonly extraordinarily difficult – task of containing an escalatory dynamic once unleashed.
    So it could make good sense for the Russians to take the kind of – unexpected – action that sends a signal that they are not going to back down, while not making it explicit that they are doing anything of the kind.
    A cruise missile strike on an operations room near Aleppo, killing Israeli, US, Turkish, Saudi, Qatari and British officers, which was leaked out through less than fully authoritative media outlets, might fit the bill.
    So also might the shooting down of two Israeli planes, which would be attributed to the Syrians, but with it being quite evident to those to whom the message was sent who was actually responsible.
    In both cases, the possible escalatory effect, although real, is muted, because – for different reasons in the two cases – people in Israel and the West cannot afford to be candid about what has happened.
    With Israel, there could be ‘carrots’, as well as ‘sticks’. There is an obvious difference of interest between Iran and Russia, in relation to Hizbullah.
    The organisation’s missile capabilities are a key to Tehran’s ‘deterrent’, while Moscow, while needing its ground troops in Syria, has good reason to want to keep relations between it and Israel on a reasonably even keel.
    This is not to say that the reports we are dealing with are reliable – only that the measures it has been suggested have been taken would appear to make rather good sense, from a Russian point of view.

  43. Harry says:

    Yeah, but my kids are very young.
    I need to move somewhere remote.

  44. Sans racines says:

    Seems like a good time for Americans to start writing to their senators…

  45. Nuff Sed says:

    It seems to me that this is indeed a world war, and that furthermore, neither side can afford to lose. Therefore, my prediction is that Uncle $cam will not allow the Axis of Resistance to wrap things up by mid-January, after which they will escalate, using nuclear weapons if necessary. Reason being, if they lose Syria, they will lose Iraq next, and Yemen, and then the position of Turkey, Yehudi Arabia and Yahudistan become precarious at best.

  46. Chris Chuba says:

    I 100% agree that this is why we are so quick to accept the meme that Russia is our eternal enemy.
    There is also a perception that we can easily defeat Russia in a conventional war anywhere that is not inside of Russia itself. This belief is also established from the Cold War because of the meme, ‘Russian equipment is junk’. I read articles linked through ‘real clear politics’ people who are billed as security experts talk as if we can quickly establish air supremacy in Syria. If they urge caution at all it is only because of the aftermath and repercussions, not because they doubt our ability to easily accomplish it. I have my doubts that Tomahawk missiles traveling at 550mph are an unstoppable weapon against the S3/400’s but what do I know.
    The Col mentioned the lack of a draft making it easier to support war. That makes sense to me. A history of easy victories with other people doing the fighting is bound to create complacency. I’d also throw in a press corp that is now an extension of the State Dept instead of being govt skeptics is still trusted when reporting on national security; we are all faux patriots now.

  47. OIFVet says:

    I can see how shooting down an Israeli warplane can be given plausible deniability by attributing it to Syria, but I also think that if such event took place it would have been too much of a propaganda coup to not have pictures of the wreckage plastered all over the media.
    In the case of the supposed cruise missile strike against the ops center, I simply can’t see it as being remotely likely. First, the Russians could not use Syrians as cover because the latter don’t have cruise missiles. Second, targeting US personnel is high risk, low reward endeavour. Third, how do the US and other Western powers hide the supposed casualties?
    I think that it is counterproductive to attribute such actions to Russia without real proof. It makes them look omnipotent, which they aren’t. R+6 have the upper hand and are about to hand the Borg a good thrashing. That is satisfying to me, without the added rumours about direct strikes against Israeli and Western assets. Indeed, I find it best that such direct confrontations are avoided by both sides, in the name of humanity.

  48. Former 11B says:

    I was in the 3rd AD in Erlangan. Our forward deployed positions were in the Fulda gap. I remember our First Sergeants little pep talk when I went there for the first time.
    “People, this is where you will die. There will Hundreds of commies coming over those hills for every one of you and your deaths will be the excuse to nuke the whole mess. The Army does require you to kill at least 10 of the enemy before you die.”
    Good times.

  49. doug says:

    Well, at least we have a choice which is rare enough. We get to pick between an unvarnished globalist with militaristic R2P tendencies and egotistical, piggish man that believes he can sell ice to Inuits and make a profit.
    Interesting look at the democracy:
    https://www.amazon.com/Against-Democracy-Jason-Brennan/dp/0691162603/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475943252&sr=1-5&keywords=democracy
    I’m highly skeptical of his proposed solutions though.

  50. FB Ali says:

    David,
    The general thrust of your argument is, I think, quite valid – whether the two events took place or not (as OIFVet says in his reply).
    The extent of the hysteria enveloping the US, especially Washington, is well described by Moon of Alabama today on Kerry’s claim of the Aleppo hospital bombing. Frankly, I am aghast that things can descend to this level.
    When policy-makers become that delusional, anything can happen!

  51. Outrage Beyond says:

    re: Third, how do the US and other Western powers hide the supposed casualties?
    “Training accidents” is a typical cover story for classified activities.

  52. Babak Makkinejad says:

    John Wayne as well as many members of the film crew also died of cancers as they were also exposed to residual radiation.

  53. hans says:

    In the late 1980s I worked a case involving people in SW Minnesota who were succumbing to thyroid and bone cancers. A cloud of fallout from those ’57 tests settled over that area. The first hint that something was seriously amiss was that trees suddenly lost their leaves in the middle of summer.

  54. hans says:

    An area 200~300 miles NE of Thunder Bay, Ontario is benefiting from climate change. That used to be small grain ag up there, but now corn is successfully grown. Land prices are a fraction of U.S. Not much going on up there otherwise, but a subsistence life is certainly possible.

  55. Nick Smith says:

    “The Israelis now realize that the Russians have already shot down a couple of their aircraft”
    Curious what you mean by this? Maybe I am completely unaware

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