COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
What Will Be The Net Result Is A Question Asked By Buchanan:
ReplyDeleteWho rises if Assad falls?
That question, which has bedeviled U.S. experts on the Middle East, may need updating to read: Who rises when Assad falls?
For the war is going badly for Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since Richard Nixon was president.
Assad’s situation seems more imperiled than at any time in this four-year civil-sectarian war that has cost the lives of some 220,000 soldiers, rebels and civilians, and made refugees of millions more.
Last month, ISIS captured Palmyra in central Syria, as it was taking Ramadi in Iraq. A coalition, at the heart of which is the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, seized Idlib province in northern Syria and is moving toward the coast and Latakia.
Half of Syria has been lost to ISIS, the Nusra front, and other jihadist and rebel groups. All of Syria’s border crossings with Iraq have been lost to ISIS. All of the border crossing with Turkey, excluding Kobani, have been lost to ISIS or rebels linked to al-Qaida. Syria’s border with Lebanon is becoming a war zone.
Some 100 Russian military advisers are said to have pulled out of Syria, suggesting Vladimir Putin may be reconsidering Russia’s historic investment.
Indicating the gravity of the situation, Syrian sources claim 7,000 to 10,000 foreign Shiite fighters, Iraqi and Iranian, have arrived to defend Damascus and launch an offensive to recapture Idlib.
Israel’s deputy chief of staff, Gen. Yair Golan, who headed the Northern Command, was quoted this week, “The Syrian Army has, for all intents and purposes, ceased to exist.”
Israeli sources report that Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, Assad’s indispensable ally, is warning that the real threats to the Shiites of Lebanon are ISIS and the Nusra Front. Fighting between Hezbollah and Syrian rebels is taking place along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Assad has been written off before, only to survive those who predicted his demise. But given the balance of forces and the way in which the tide of battle is turning, it is hard to see how his regime and army can long resist eventual collapse.
Arrayed against him are not only the Nusra Front and ISIS, which are attracting recruits from abroad, but also Turks, Saudis and Gulf Arabs, who have been clandestinely aiding Sunni rebels we regard as terrorists.
Though the Turks have a half-million-man army, 3,000 tanks, 1,000 military aircraft, and are 60 miles from the ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria, our NATO ally refuses to move. Turkey’s president sees Assad as an ally of Iran.
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DeleteThe Israelis, too, see Assad as an ally of Iran and a greater enemy than an ISIS or Nusra Front with no army to threaten Israel. They have been aiding Syrian rebels on the Golan.
Israeli ambassador Michael Oren said in 2013, “We always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.” Fine, but the “bad guys” Ambassador Oren prefers have on their hands the blood of 3,000 Americans.
It is difficult to see where the Assad regime and army, under attack within and without, will get the recruits to defend that half of Syria they still hold, let alone reunite the country.
So, again, the question: What happens when Assad falls? Who will protect the Christians he has sheltered? Who will protect the Shiite minority? Who will halt the massacres when they come?
And who will seize power in Damascus?
Right now the rival claimants would appear to be the Nusra Front, an offshoot of al-Qaida that brought down our twin towers, and ISIS, the death cult famous for the barbarity of its executions.
According to The New York Times on June 4, ISIS is “emerging as a social and political movement,” preparing to govern its caliphate.
Interviewed by CBS News, Gen. David Petraeus said the United States is “probably losing” the war to ISIS, and we need more U.S. troops in Iraq or we run “the risk of losing the fight.”
Now consider what the general is saying:
America should send her best and bravest back into Iraq to defeat ISIS, while Turkey, the Saudis, the Gulf Arabs and Israel are helping bring about the defeat of a Syrian army that has been battling ISIS for years.
Our “friends” in the Middle East have no problem with us fighting and dying to drive ISIS out of Iraq, while they try to bring about the fall of Assad in Syria, which would constitute a triumph for ISIS.
A collapse of Assad’s army could give ISIS control of Syria.
Our “friends” don’t mind this happening because it would be a defeat for Iran and the Shiite Crescent, their enemies, even if it meant a victory for ISIS and al-Qaida, our enemies.
It is time we stopped letting other nations pick the enemies for us to fight. And as our “friends” are looking out for themselves first, last, and always, let us Americans begin to do the same.
REPEAT:
Delete...Interviewed by CBS News, Gen. David Petraeus said the United States is “probably losing” the war to ISIS, and we need more U.S. troops in Iraq or we run “the risk of losing the fight.”
Now consider what the general is saying:
America should send her best and bravest back into Iraq to defeat ISIS, while Turkey, the Saudis, the Gulf Arabs and Israel are helping bring about the defeat of a Syrian army that has been battling ISIS for years.
Our “friends” in the Middle East have no problem with us fighting and dying to drive ISIS out of Iraq, while they try to bring about the fall of Assad in Syria, which would constitute a triumph for ISIS.
A collapse of Assad’s army could give ISIS control of Syria.
Our “friends” don’t mind this happening because it would be a defeat for Iran and the Shiite Crescent, their enemies, even if it meant a victory for ISIS and al-Qaida, our enemies.
It is time we stopped letting other nations pick the enemies for us to fight. And as our “friends” are looking out for themselves first, last, and always, let us Americans begin to do the same.
Iraq, Libya and Syria: Mission accomplished. Who benefits?
ReplyDeleteI'm still awaiting your 'solution' to all this, big guy.
ReplyDeleteI've asked, but no answer, unless I've missed it.
It must have something to do with empowering Iran, as you've said "Iran is fighting for civilization".
What would you as Commander in Chief actually do tomorrow morning ?
Order Numbers 1,2,3 requested, Sir.
hoooorah
Bush is so yesterday.
It's up to you now.
Withdraw to 'Fortress America' ?
DeleteWe are doing that.
Perfectly good questions.
DeleteYou should not disappear them.
It should be obvious, even to you, that “doing things” is what got us in this mess in the first place. I doubt that you watched the video but look at the photo on the upper right corner of this blog. It is Ronald Reagan doing something. What was the business of the US taking a side in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq/Iran, Iraq/Kuwait, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Syria< Egypt?
DeleteWe are the most incompetent military interventionist on the planet for the past 70 years. Everything we get involved in turns to shit. Most of the leadership of ISIS were in US prison camps in Iraq. Both sides are fighting with US arms. All the military training of the Iraq Army is lost. We got stuck with that because we fired the entire Iraq Army and destroyed the civil service.
We killed Gaddafi and SOS Clinton thought it was funny. No one is laughing now , especially the fools in Europe that are reaping waves of immigrants fleeing the disaster created by NATO.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey are all supporting the enemies the US is supposed to be fighting.
The military disability payments of our mercenary foreign legion is over $100 billion annually on its way to $200 billion.
What are we to do? Stop doing, would be a good start.
It is too late to stop ISIS. It is a new country born out of the European and US meddling and the US attack and destruction of Iraq. Iraq is finished and so is Syria and Libya. Saudi Arabia is vulnerable and good riddance when it is gone. Afghanistan will return to the Taliban.
We don’t need a Fortress America. No one is coming to attack us. Withdrawal implies we owned something and held it. That is naive at best. Our foreign policy is in shambles. Our policy with China, blew up in our face. Our Russian policy? We don’t have one. Our Latin American policy, we have none. That we have ceded to China. Africa and even Afghanistan have gained more from Chinese economic and trade policy than US military policy.
You want to stop ISIS, you can talk to their supporters in Israel, Turkey and the Gulf States and quit arming them, but it is probably too late.
ISIS is and was a direct creation of America to counter Iran.
DeleteWhy do you think America is NOT doing anything REAL to stop it?
the bombing runs that have "killed" 10,000 ISIS?
A joke....
Syria has killed 300,000 civilians in the last 40 months.
As for arming ISIS? America armed them by allowing a billion dollars worth of stuff to be given to the Iraqi army, all which has been handed to ISIS....
Why didn't America destroy those arms when she left Iraq?
When Obama took out Ole Mo in Libya? Where do you think those arms WENT?
Nope deflect and blame everyone but America...
America
Funny thread as usual...
ReplyDelete... and as usual, nothing of interest or importance from you.
DeleteDon't be so quick on the judgement....
Deletei gots things to say, you most likely will delete them...
So I be taking my time...
:)
It's funny...
always watching you try to figure out who's fault it is when the arabs are losing... other than the arabs themselves...
LOL
Hamas fires rockets at Israel, kidnaps 3 kids and executes them? It's israel's fault, it's a false flag... it's over reaction..
LOL
Syria and it's Assad family are reaping what the sowed in HAMA years ago..
ISIS? Just a name of folks who have been slaughtered by Assad for decades...
Isis they aint no good group of people, savages they are....
Just like the Iranians, hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah el Islam, Force 17, Islamic Jihad, the Moslem Brotherhood.....
But now they are brutally killing each other..
You know why I delete some of your comments and why I leave others stand. That will not change. Bob on the other hand is a clown that makes no one laugh. He is neither amusing nor has any thoughts of his own. He is irritating. My deletions of his comments are litter control.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteSome of it rises to public toilet graffiti from the man of letters.
DeleteI put this up over a year ago:
ReplyDeleteMagnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda
Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda
“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.
I predicted the destabilization of Syria would be insane and would benefit ISIS. What did Frick and Frack predict?
The true solution to Syria was simple. Remove Assad and let his Uncle take over.
DeleteHowever that option is shot to hell...
Now the only thing will be is a civil war. When the people are sufficiently worn out from war? There will be a cessation of hostilities.
Syria as it was known under Assad is over.
ISIS hardly existed at that time. You are making things up.
DeleteWhy did you vanish my comments on Hinduism vs your 8th grade out look ?
Cause you don't like to look the fool.
Arab logic at it's finest...
ReplyDeleteWho benefits?
Then you can tell who is guilty...
LOL
Of COURSE Israel doesn't cotton to the IDEA of a Strong Iranian controlled Syria. After all Iran controls Hamas and Hezbollah too...
But Iran has murdered many Americans in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia but those lives don't count...
The folks that brought down the Twin Towers? Were they not trained by the CIA in Afghanistan to defeat the Soviets?
Syria will be dismantled, Just as Iraq has been.
Next? Iran will be dismantled... After all 1/2 of all Iranians are not even Iranian.
The colonial borders are being erased and replaced by sectarianism.
Nationalism was and IS a western idea that holds no merit in the arab/islamic world.
The arab occupied middle east is done. It will be replaced by arab tribal consortiums.
Going back from where it came.
There will be no nation of "Palestine", not because of Israel's refusal, but because there is no such place or real people. The arabs of Gaza and the "west bank" may be other identical "arabs" but there are not from the same Clans or Tribes.
The west has tried and failed for 60 years to create a nation out of nothing and that is what they have, nothing.
The arabs of gaza, once Hamas is defeated, will confederate with Egypt and the arabs of the west bank, will join the arabs of the east bank AGAIN (Jordan) and create a confederation.
And Israel will survive and thrive as the Jewish state.
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DeleteI guess I should apologize to the rat.
Given the number of faulty predictions in the Yinon Plan and that we live in an entirely different world than was supposed by Yinon, I assumed that no one but a fool would believe the end result of the plan could be achieved. Obviously, I was wrong.
You've adopted the dream, son.
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As long as the US stays out of it, all of it, I don’t care.
ReplyDeleteBut America is involved, it has been nation building in "palestine" throwing billions and billions at it (not to mention the UNRWA) all for nothing, most of it in Swiss accounts...
DeleteMaybe America should support those that support America.
Hmmm there is a thought..
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DeleteAmerica didn't create the PA, Israel did. They did it in 1992 in secret meetings in Norway when they resurrected a disgraced and bankrupt Arafat and PLO and brought him back as a corrupt and malleable dupe so that they could continue the 45 year kabuki that continues today.
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DeleteMaybe America should support those that support America..
That would sure make things easier, not to mention a hell of a lot cheaper. I am having a hard time thinking of more than one there that helps the US on a regular basis. The rest are either hegemons struggling to increase their territory or client states all more trouble than they are worth, all of them doing what is in their own interest not that of the US.
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Deletes/b ...hegemons struggling to increase their territory and influence
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Bullshit. The folks there created the PA out of the hatred that existed in Martha Gellhorn's day., and long before. Hatred can be creative. It is hatred that created the PA, Hamas....
DeleteThey don't deserve a state.
Why would anyone sane want them to have a state ?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteI just mentioned this web site and Deuce threw a fit and took it down - I wasn't even really aiming at Deuce with it - I just happened on it and found it interested and had an urge to share -
ReplyDeleteAbout
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Canary Mission
Home
About
Individuals
Organizations
BDS News
Blog
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Donate
The Canary Mission database was created to expose individuals
and groups that are anti-Freedom, anti-American and anti-Semitic
in order to protect the public and our democratic values.
Canary Mission is run by students and concerned citizens galvanized and motivated by our mission to protect the universal values of freedom and democracy. We pursue our mission by presenting the actions of hate-fomenting individuals and organizations - clearing up the ambiguity that surrounds their activities on campus and beyond. Our hope is that by shining a bright light on radicals and their activities, the public can clarify for themselves the nature of such affiliations.
Canary Mission is concerned by the rise of anti-Semitic hate crimes on college campuses, and the dangerous Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to demonize and destroy Israel via economic, academic and social boycotts. These acts lead to a divide between students on campus, and an atmosphere of fear and distrust.
We believe in the right of employers to know which potentially threatening organizations prospective employees were affiliated with during their time on campus.
Canary Mission provides freely available material gathered from completely accessible and unrestricted sources. We have chosen to collate this information into a concise and unambiguous format for the consumption of prospective employers and the public at large.
Partner with us in our mission and together we can pursue freedom and democracy in North America.
- The Canary Mission Team
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DeleteGood lord, no wonder Deuce pulled it down. It's perverse.
It sounds like something from some hate group or a band of thugs.
We believe in the right of employers to know which potentially threatening organizations prospective employees were affiliated with during their time on campus.
Blackmail, extortion, or just character assassination? Get you head out of your ass. If you can't see what this is, it's pretty pathetic.
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What the hell's wrong in that ?
DeleteYou're nuts.
And I know for a fact from much experience with you that you practice the exact same policy.
You don't want to get your sweet ass sued off, not that anyone could possibly collect, for hiring a known jihadi,a direct danger to your other employees.
You know you duty to your employees.
I think Deuce was most concerned that his site might be reported as an anti-semitic hate site.
My honest opinion.
>>>>We believe in the right of employers to know which potentially threatening organizations prospective employees were affiliated with during their time on campus.<<<<
DeleteQuirk has now said he does not agree with this perfectly sane policy.
Quirk is cool with hiring bomb laden jihadis at his Front Desk.
If you buy from Quirk, buy on line.
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DeleteYou moron. I tried to find out who these guys are. One would think if they were a legitimate organization you could find out something about them. Not so.
You go to their website and all you see is what you posted above. No links. No address. Nothing that trace down who or where they are. Completely anonymous like some cyber stalker. The only thing on their home page, other than what you posted, is a space for you to send them your e-mail, convenient for trolling for suckers like you.
If you plug in the Canary Team in Google, on about page 3 of the links listed, there is a link someone put up that takes you to these guys (or this guy/gal who knows) Twitter page. Within the first few tweets you will see this,
4 Jun
Canary Mission @canarymission
@EcBillofRights thats right our personal information is not available to you. Sorry about that.
They don't even have the balls to say who they are or were they are located.
Their message appears to be one of race-baiting and intimidation.
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Look, in the final analysis, ISIS created ISIS.
ReplyDeleteIt's just the latest in a many century's old insanity of trying to live literature en masse.
May they all kill themselves and self cleanse our wonderful planet.
May Iran do the same.
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DeleteIt's just the latest in a many century's old insanity of trying to live literature en masse.
Lordy, you are way gone.
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I stick with my analysis that this is all a literary fight.
DeleteKindly suggest a counter thesis.
By the way, I was thinking the Nigger Jim is an Hegelian.
The Stars
Huck
Thesis:
"They was made."
Huck
Antithesis:
"They just happened."
Nigger Jim
Systhesis:
"The moon laid 'em."
If that is not a sublime Hegelian dialectic I don't know what is.....
(Hegel was a Lutheran, by the way)
Did I mention my Niece is considering marrying ?
ReplyDeleteDid I mention she has given me the 'uncle's perogative' in this matter ? Having soured on her biological uncles?
I possess a Veto ! I cannot rule on whom she MUST marry but I can put thumbs down on this or that candidate.
I also, I find, have the right to question and interview personally the candidate. He is PhD, I BA.
I was always longed for a situation just like this !!!!!!!!!!!
She has jetesoned her biological uncles for being assholes. They wanted her to stick with the man who was ill treating her.
They are now all fired. Bobbo is hired forever.
She has made, against lots of opposition, her transition to our western ways.
She is wonderful, and writes my OGF once in a while.
They get along well.
Did I tell you she was published in the journal Nature ?
All this is more important to me than casting blame in the mideast.
She said once:
"The ones in the middle east are the worst, Uncle Bob"
This is a woman who knows what she is talking about.
When I go to India to walk her down the aisle, as she has requested, I am inviting Q and OGF to go with me for the excitement of a Hindu wedding !
Inviting WiO too !
DeleteI think Israel and India have a natural relationship and should 'get it on'.
Her father vacates the heat of the city in the summer and goes to meditate in the higher and cooler Himalayas....
DeleteHer father seems to me like a heck of a nice guy, and has accepted me fully into his family.
DeleteHindu weddings are the best ever.
I am thinking of bringing Q along as 'ring bearer', a role usually reserved for a juvenile, but if it fits, it fits.
DeleteShe is lovely in all ways.
DeleteShe has cut herself free.
She is brave, and I am proud of my relationship with her, and that she trusts me so
She has cut herself FREE !
The Nigger Jim was seeking the very same thing.
DeleteLiterature is Life.