fahrenheit451:096

A lot of people, especially the rabble of benchwarmers of all parties in the House of Commons chamber,have been getting rather upset these last few days about yet another issue they can do nothing about other than have a collective pseudo-moral hissy fit over.  To put the aforementioned's hissy fit in context; The US and its NATO satrapies have, one recalls this past quarter century, pretty much screwed things up royally in a whole host of formerly stable, sovereign nation states. Iraq,Yugoslavia, Afghanistan,Iraq a second time,Libya and Syria. I exclude the Ukraine from this inglorious litany for the simple reason that NATO hasn't actually bombed anyone or anything as yet in that particular theatre of operations. Back to Syria. Said H.o.C. benchwarmers in August 29.2013 REJECTED a government motion that Parliament authorise UK military intervention in Syria in response to the alleged use by the Syrian government of chemical weapons against civilians. Fast forward to December 2 2015 and this time said H.o.C. AUTHORISED UK military airstrikes in Syria directed exclusively against ISIS/DAESH. As the former Head of MI6 observed whilst appearing of BBC Radio4's " Today " program, you can't really fight against both sides at once in a conflict. He ought to have added especially in a three plus sided conflict at that. The much vaunted and lauded sanctioned airstrikes in 2015, with the involvement of 2 planes and no actual effective strikes have been just a waste of effort. All the planning and conspiratorial shenanigans of the EU and NATO in their various forums trying to cajole the myriad hornets' nests of " moderate " i.e. non-ISIS opposition forces in Syria including Al Qaeda to evolve into something that can be financed and supplied with weapons-that too hasn't really worked for the US and its grandiose designs on a post-Assad Syria. And so we come to the five years long siege of Aleppo. Only this time, the faux wrath and ire of the H.o.C. benchwarmers is directed at Russia because it has been lending military assistance to the constitutional government of Syria.  How odd it appears that in International Law, let alone accepted norms of global diplomacy and peacetime relationships between Sovereign states,that the parliamentary body of one state whose armed forces are operating in and across Syria openly and covertly WITHOUT the permission of Damascus, denounces the actions of another state who ARE operating  in Syria WITH the permission of Damascus. Odder still, that the legally legitimate actions of Russia in conjunction with Syria are deemed to constitute a war crime comparable with Nazi Germany's use of the Luftwaffe in Civil War Spain of the 1930's.  Such is the destitution of learning and paucity of historic fact checking within the House of Commons that they are ignorant of when the term War Crimes actually entered the lexicon. Germany's intervention in 1930's Spain was never characterised by contemporary sources as a " war crime ". Whilst at the time Britain and France observed a strict neutrality that included a refusal to render any assistance whatsoever to the besieged, legitimate Republican Spanish government. Foreign Secretary Johnson's wantonly provocative call for demonstrations in front of the Russian Embassy in London are the classic tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing; as for Johnson himself, he is a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more..

Footnote:-

see also this blog #081 on 25 August 2016

fahrenheit451:081

NATO is when all's said and done, merely a convenient instrument by which the United States carries out its foreign policy objectives. These imperial policy goals are enacted through a flexible combination of of political sophistry, economic intimidation and military acts of aggression. Yugoslavia, Afghanistan,Iraq,Libya,Syria,Iran,Ukraine are amongst the most recent targets. Each " intervention " with or without any additional  legitimising UN authorisation, has brought about far wider and longer lasting  geopolitical ructions than perhaps even the most hawkish Washington neocon warmonger could possibly have contemplated. A direct Turkish military invasion of Syria was, most likely, not on the neocons list of what could possibly go wrong list when they set about engineering the destruction of what is now disparagingly in the West called , " The Assad Regime ". Likewise Russia being granted operational capabilities on Iranian airfields was another scenario Washington couldn't see coming. The emergence of ISIS/Daesh, the rise of ethnic Kurdish militias inside Syria. Flashpoint upon flashpoint until what the underlying neocon policy objectives were to begin with are now enmeshed in an ungovernable vortex. Despite all its proselytising Commentators and Experts intellectual /quasi-philosophical pretensions about " order " and predictability, the capitalist system is itself predicated on continuing chaos and greater or lesser degrees of innate instability. The Ruling Elites and their fervent, obedient acolytes of the political class believe as an article of faith, in the efficacy of " market forces ". Profit and loss. Thaumaturgy for the 21st,century.The neocon global military strategists and thinkers are there to formulate policies that are intended to reinforce the economic doctrines and practices of neoliberalism. Which in essence equate precisely with the defined policy objectives of the western industrialised liberal democracies under the hegemony of the  United States.  It's a good thing therefore that this depraved and dysfunctional nostalgia for a western dominated unipolar world is being successfully,albeit incrementally challenged by the likes of China; of whom it was widely reported the other week:-

China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that recent visit by Guan Youfei, the Chinese military official charged with overseeing international cooperation, signaled Beijing’s willingness to boost military cooperation with the Damascus government.

And I bet that wasn't on the US State Department's Top 10 list of what could possibly go wrong in Syria either.

fahrenheit451:067

Well, at least it breaks the monotony. News of the UK's  troop deployment ( as part of a wider NATO strategy to foment a military conflict with Russia ) to the turnip fields of two of the EU's aggressive beggar satrapies of Poland and Estonia really does define what genuine incredulity feels like. The BBC trumpets, a la classic Vaudeville  Petomaine the following, in easy to grasp bullet points in case you're too thick to comprehend a longer narrative form.

Hundreds of UK troops are to be sent to Poland and Estonia as part of the Nato response to concerns over Russia.

A 500-strong battalion will be deployed to Estonia and 150 troops will be based in Poland to "reassure" these countries, the defence secretary said.

Michael Fallon said it aims to "deter Russia from any further aggression".

Eastern Nato countries "feel enormous pressure from Russia doing large exercises on the border, flying over their airspace and so on," he said.

"This [the deployment] is something Nato's been planning for a while, that countries like Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have made clear that they want.

The units - led by the UK, the US, Germany and Canada - are due to be in place in early 2017.

UK armed forces are already deployed in more than 80 countries across the world in a range of roles, including 450 soldiers in Afghanistan and more than 275 military training personnel in Iraq.

*Mr Cameron, who is due to announce the deployment at a Nato summit in Warsaw later, said: "This summit is a chance for us to reiterate our strong support for Ukraine and our other eastern allies to deter Russian aggression.

"Actions speak louder than words and the UK is proud to be taking the lead role, deploying troops across Eastern Europe.

"It is yet another example of the UK leading in Nato."...here endeth the pious sermon.

*Cameron you might recall is the same Cameron whom my blog,historically caricatured as The Chief Toilet Attendant of The Greater European Union's Northwest maritime province of Yu-Kay. And we all know how that ended. So, la Grand Petomaine's  record is already 0-1 and falling.

BBC Radio 4's flagship  Today programme on July 8 even featured a rather long and laborious p.r. exercise by epicly challenged bipolar Foreign Secretary Hammond,who as is customary spouted an immense load of idiosyncratic verbiage that contained repeated phrases about  Bwitain's leading role in NATO.No-one  whilst he was on air at the Beeb had the perspicacity to administer him his meds,which may have mitigated the listener's suffering and to a lesser extent any fleeting compassion for Hammond's endemic stupidity.

Deliberately under-resourced,shabbily treated,badly commanded, idiotically led by ex-public schoolboy buffoons a la 14-18, the British Military are currently 0-2 with their performance record in actually doing anything worthwhile whatsoever. Mowing down unarmed Irish civilians is no longer in their training manuals.Alas, since they were getting quite proficient at it at one stage.

My views on NATO match precisely my vindicated by History view on the european union; I utterly hate, loathe and despise everything it does and everything it stands for. Not only is the eu dead and buried, NATO isn't far behind.The grave beckons. As an arm of US Global Imperialism it is, NATO once again finds itself in the somewhat ironic position of being wholly impotent and redundant as a hydra-headed armed insurgency is again raging across  urban population centres of The Beast itself.

schaden...freude!!!!