41 posts were split to a new topic: Coup in Turkey
They have finally come round to Putins thinking.
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Assuming this is real, those are a hapless shower. Poor aul Abu Hajaar is like a stooge in Dadâs army.
Paints IS in a fairly thick light. Youâd want to be a pretty thick fuck to blow yourself up in the name of God I suppose.
Turkey have gone into Northern Syria
Obama and his nobel peace prize then 
You couldnât make it up.
The US has basically agreed to be Saudis lapdog in return for continuation of the petrodollar
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There are going to be three powers in the ME, Israel obviously, Saudi, and Iran with Russian backing. The Saudis are serious about diversifying out of oil, itâs just that itâs almost all military. A right tinderbox.
Well they gave one to Kissinger. The difference being that everyone knows Kissinger is/was a bloodthirsty cunt. Obama, like many hawkish democrats is unlikely to be outed as such. The Democrats have no incentive to do so, and the Republicans dare not suggest a liberal president was too tough.
Dronebama
Some of the stuff Greenwald and Scahill have revealed is terrifying, especially the extent to which the NSA is now using metadata to come up with targets. Creating models of phone and pc usage and using fit with that, and that alone, to approve missile strikes.
"The source underscored the unreliability of metadata, most often from phone and computer communications intercepts. These sources of information, identified by so-called selectors such as a phone number or email address, are the primary tools used by the military to find, fix, and finish its targets. âIt requires an enormous amount of faith in the technology that youâre using,â the source said. âThereâs countless instances where Iâve come across intelligence that was faulty.â This, he said, is a primary factor in the killing of civilians.
⌠between January 2012 and February 2013, U.S. special operations airstrikes killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets. During one five-month period of the operation, according to the documents, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets. In Yemen and Somalia, where the U.S. has far more limited intelligence capabilities to confirm the people killed are the intended targets, the equivalent ratios may well be much worse."
The battle for Mosul begins today. Could be a long one. ISIS last foothold in Iraq
Itâs been very high profile. They must be confident. Would be a major propaganda victory for ISIS if the offensive failed.
How many battles has there been for Mosul at this stage?
Itâs really going to catch ISIS on the hop. The element of surprise will be key.
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I had to laugh today the general chap was on saying they were going to attack them from 5 directions. Youâd think heâd keep that info to himself 
They were so badly embarrassed the last time though that they are crowing like fuck about it. They outnumber the ISIS lads something like 10/1 and theyâve the US dropping bombs for them so itâs a bit of a no contest. If they lose this they may as well pack it in.
Live feed of it here. Maybe someone can provide a running commentary.
In the last 15 years alone at least 3.
If they lose this Iraq is finished. Itâs probably finished anyway. The Kurds & Shiâites are part of this offensive but they arenât allowed into Mosul, just the outskirts, as thatâs a Sunni majority city. How do you run a country so divided that lads wonât even let the opposite side die on their behalf.
Part of the difficulty is that âthe westâ canât really imagine anything other than the existing state system in the Middle East. The US in particular seems to have no grand strategy for the region at all, and itâs very hard to say if they are being part of the solution or part of the problem at any given time.
Starting with Carter theyâre approaching 40 years of military interventionism in the region now with nothing to show for it. The region is less stable, more violent, and much more anti-American. The yanks have over relied on their military to advance their interests their and have spent that entire time running around from crisis to crisis. After ISIS someone or something else will have them chasing their tails.
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