Ein optimistischer Ausblick auf das Jahr 2017

Betrachtungen zum Jahreswechsel von Irene Eckert

Trotz alledem

Trotz alledem und alledem, trotz Terrorgewalt und 'Lustmördertum¹ an der Wahrheit', brachte das Jahr 2016 einen massiven Einbruch in die neoliberale Agenda. Die Zielvorgaben der globalistischen Verhöhner nationaler Belange wurden auf verschiedenen Ebenen abgebremst. Ihre Kriegskönigin Hillary Clinton ist trotz aller Jubelparaden am Ende nicht gekürt worden. Ihre bankrotten saudischen Finanziers müssen nun in die Röhre gucken. Auch ihre betuchten Freunde in der Wallstreet, im Pentagon und in der Rüstungsindustrie sehen sich versetzt. Darüber schäumt natürlich der militärisch-industrielle Komplex und spuckt vorerst noch Gift und Galle. Ihr Mann im Weißen Haus, der scheidende Nobelpreisträger, versucht auch in in letzter Sekunde noch alles in seiner schwindenden Macht stehende, um die Interessen seiner Hintermänner zu bedienen und die neue Agenda seines Amtsnachfolgers nachhaltig zu sabotieren. 

Die großzügige Budgetierung regimefeindlicher 'Rebellen' in Syrien, ihre völkerrechtswidrige Ausstaffierung mit Luftabwehrraketen wurde gestern noch in Gesetzesform gegossen.* Den Russen wurde wieder und wieder mit empfindlichen Verluste gedroht. All diese aus der Verzweiflung geborenen Maßnahmen vermögen aber nur mühsam zu verhüllen, dass die liberale Hegemonie ihrem Ende entgegengeht. Die Befreiung von Aleppo, das trilaterale Treffen in Moskau² – ungeachtet des Attentat auf den russischen Botschafter in Ankara am Vortage – sind Signale einer neuen Ära. In Syrien ist der arabische NATO-Frühling zum Halten gekommen. Dem Wüten des auch vom Westen gesponserten Terrors³ wurde dort dank vor allem russischer, aber auch iranischer, libanesischer und chinesischer Unterstützung ein Riegel vorgeschoben. Die größte humanitäre Aktion der Neuzeit konnte mit der Evakuierung und Versorgung der ansässigen Bevölkerung beginnen – ohne Hilfe des Westens.

Ein geopolitischer Paradigmenwechsel rückt weiter in den Bereich des Möglichen 

Vom neu gewählten US-Präsidenten ist bekannt, dass er die Unterstützung des Terrors in Syrien und in der Ukraine kontraproduktiv findet. Donald Trump's klar formulierte außenpolitische Intentionen bergen somit weitere Möglichkeiten für einen geopolitischen Paradigmenwechsels im kommenden Jahr. Ohne Frage sind die Widerstände, die dem ehrgeizigen Manne aus den eigenen Reihen entgegenschlagen enorm. Aber die geopolitischen Gewichte haben sich zuungunsten seiner Gegner verschoben. In Bulgarien und Moldawien sind russlandfreundliche Kreise nach vorne gerückt. In Westeuropa hat das BREXIT-Votum zumindest die Brüchigkeit des US-gesteuerten imperialen Projekts bloßgelegt. In Italien gewinnt die EU-kritische und russlandfreundliche Dreisterne-Bewegung an Bedeutung, in Frankreich werden Fillon oder Marie Le Pen als künftige Präsidenten den russophoben Kurs der 'GrandeNation' abändern und für die Aufhebung der Sanktionen eintreten. Auch in weiteren europäischen Ländern sind die Boykottmaßnahmen unpopulär und tragen daher eher bei zur Stärkung neuer, russlandfreundlicher Strömungen allerorten.

Vertauensschwund in Medienpropaganda

Analog zum Vertrauensverlust in das demokratiefeindliche, unsoziale Brüssel ist der Vertrauensschwund in die Massenmedien zu beobachten. Die Popularität des russischen Präsidenten Putin wächst umgekehrt proportional zu seiner medialen Dämonisierung, mit der andererseits die Beschwörung seiner vermeintlichen Allmacht einherging. Die kopflosen Versuche diesem Trend entgegenzuwirken und der Flucht in Alternativmedien, wie etwa RT zu begegnen, zeigen gegenteilige Wirkung. Sie verbreitern deren Popularität. Die Resolution des EU-Parlaments über die Verurteilung von 'Sputnik' und 'Russia Today' als No-Go-Zonen sowie die plötzliche Anprangerung von „Fake News“ im Netz tragen das Stigma der freiheitsfeindlichen Zensur auf der Stirn. Sie unterminieren nur  die eigene Glaubwürdigkeit und richten sich damit gegen die Initiatoren.

Schließlich haben die konzerngesteuerten großen Medien in den letzten selbst ihre eigene Unzulänglichkeit offenbart. Obwohl sie fast uneingeschränkt gegen BREXIT votierten und sein Scheitern prognostizierten, wurden sie eines anderen belehrt. Noch eindrücklicher zeigte sich ihr schwindender Einfluss im US-Wahlkampf. Vergessen sei auch nicht, zu welch katastrophalen Folgen ihre Lügen über die angeblichen Massenvernichtungswaffen im Irak geführt haben. Die 'Fake News' der Main Stream Medien von damals haben bis heute mörderische Folgen für das einst blühende Land und für die ganze Region. Auch an dieser Stelle bewahrheitet sich das Wissen des Volksmundes: Lügen haben kurze Beine. Irgendwann hilft auch keine noch so raffiniert ersonnene Verdrehung der Wahrheit mehr. Die Zeit der erfolgreichen Blendung der Massen neigt sich ihrem Ende entgegen.

Pragmatische, transparente, ideologiefreie Politik wird Strahlkraft entfalten

Die ruhige und besonnene Art mit der Russland bisher auf alle Provokationen reagiert hat, wird weiter Schule machen. Die fragend-suchende Haltung, mit der man sich in Moskau an alle Konfliktursachen herantastet und die Offenheit, mit der man nach gemeinsamen Interessenpunkten mit allen außenpolitischen Akteuren sucht, hat auch im zurückliegenden Jahr Erfolge gezeitigt. Die jährlichen, internationalen Pressekonferenzen Vladimir Putins, in diesem Jahr waren über 1400 Journalisten akkreditiert, können in ihrer Vorbildwirkung kaum überschätzt werden. Die international zugänglichen RT-Sendungen haben andere, staatlich finanzierte Kanäle wie BBC oder Deutsche Welle auf Grund ihrer Qualität und Ausgewogenheit längst beiseite gedrängt.

Die friedliebenden Völker können nur davon profitieren, ganz im Sinne des russischen RT-Mottos 'Mehr Fragen stellen'. Nur durch mehr alternativen Wissenserwerb und damit mehr Durchblick lassen sich auch bei uns Schritte im Sinne einer friedfertigeren Politik tun.

Die aktuellen geopolitischen Umschichtungen, Zusammenschlüsse großer friedliebender Staaten wie China, Russland, Iran u.a. innerhalb der Shanghai Kooperation, die kontinente-übergreifende BRICS-Brücke oder auch der Ausbruch -Versuch der Philippinen aus dem ASEAN-Verbund unter dem neuen Präsidenten Ridrigo Duerte, all das sind Stützpfeiler für alle Orientierung und friedenssuchenden Nationen und Menschen.

In diesem Sinne blicken wir zuversichtlich ins Neue Jahr.

_________________________

1Thomas Mann, Rundfunk-Ansprache „An die deutschen Hörer“ 28. März 1944, „ Zeit und Werk“ Aufbau Verlag 1956, Frankfurt /Main S. 718

2Iran, Russland und das NATO-Land Türkei bemühen sich nun ohne Westen um die Beilegung des Syrienkonflikts, ein Novum! Erdogan verkündet, die USA seien an der Finanzierung des IS-Terrors beteiligt RT 28.12. 16

3In Ost-Aleppo hoben die Befreier einen unterirdischen Bunker mit NATO-Offizieren aus, was eine „Geheimsitzung“ des UN-Sicherheitsrates zur Folge hatte

* http://theduran.com/obama-is-ready-to-punish-russia-for-allegedly-hacking-the-us-elections/

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"What made this year memorable and what to expect in the new year."

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  Bullhorns: 2016 big bang
  

  The year 2016 was tumultuous, even transformational. On this edition of CrossTalk, we discuss what made this year memorable and what to expect in the new year. CrossTalking with Mark Sleboda, Dmitry Babich, and Adam Garrie. Watch video, click here: https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/371999-2016-events-2017-expectations/
  

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  'CrossTalk' is RT's flagship program. This TV debate experience presents hot-topic discussions on...

ADAM GARRIE: "Let 2017 be the year Donbass is fully free and peaceful."

My New Year’s wish: freedom for Donbass

Point of Reflection and Discussion (Blogger's Choice):

The people of Donbass have been let down by the media, the international community and even some of their friends and comrades. Let 2017 be the year Donbass is fully free and peaceful.

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There are many wishes I have for the New Year.

Broadly speaking, I hope that the many geo-political triumphs of 2016 are translated into human triumphs in both a literal and metaphysical sense.

This includes my wish for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Eurasian Economic Union and the BRICS to fundamentally demonstrate that there is no turning back to unipolarity in geo-politics. 

What’s more is that I am confident that long before the end of 2017, Syria and her allies will achieve their final decisive victories over all terrorists still operating in the country.

Peace and prosperity will return to the great people of Syria. The trilateral peace process led by Russia with Iran and Turkey is one step in the right direction, in spite of Turkey’s recent actions. 

But my primary wish is for a conclusion to the war in Donbass.

The war in Donbass has raged since 2014 and of all unnecessary wars ravaging the earth, it remains the most unnecessary war of them all. It started not as a result of terrorists flowing into Donbass, nor as a result of Western intervention in Donbass, a historic Russian region that in modern history has never been anything but Russian contrary to idiotic Bolshevik* drawing of the internal map of Soviet Republics.

Rather a Western financed coup brought fascists to power in Kiev, and the people of Donbass simply had enough.

After suffering for decades under the unreliable, disloyal and incompetent  leadership of Kiev, putting naked fascists in power was simply the last straw.

The Donetsk and Lugansk republics were formed after the populations expressed their will to do so in a democratic referendum. That should have been the end of the matter.

Instead fascist troops, their mercenaries and free-lance terrorists, including Islamists, have continually invaded Donbass. Men, women, children and even infants have been pillaged, left homeless, or been tortured, killed or rapedin the process.

In spite of the so-called Minsk II agreement, Kiev’s troops continue to invade the Donbass republics.  Over the western Christmas period, the invasions became even more lethal, although this was totally ignored by the mainstream media.

This is why it is my personal wish for an historic injustice which has resulted in a deadly war to be corrected in 2017.

The Donbass republics should be recognised as sovereign entities, and if they elect to join the Russian Federation, this should be accomplished without any caveats or delays.

In the longer term, this historically fake state of Ukraine** will cease to exist. It is inevitable that half or perhaps more of the Ukrainian regions will either join the Russian Federation or form a confederacy that is friendly and open to Russia.

The western regions, which until 1945 were part of the Second Polish Republic, might well become a European vassal state, a kind of cold weather Kosovo style mafia state.  If that is what the people wish, so be it, although they still have time to reconsider the folly of their recent ways.

But whilst all of Ukraine suffers and much of it is enslaved, the people of Donbass have struck the first decisive blow against this fascist tyranny.

Their freedom must be achieved and can be achieved rapidly, so long as the powers acting in the name of justice do not forsake their duties.

See original source: http://theduran.com/new-years-wish-freedom-donbass/

* Bolshevik? no Chrutchev's unilateral decision

** its history to be studied in depth

Condolences on the loss of the Alexandrov Ensemble artists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQmfZ1JygMw

Terror oder Sabotage ausgeschlossen ?

Zum tragischen Absturz der TU-154

Eine Kondolenz von Irene Eckert

Ich bin zutiefst berührt und wachgerüttelt von der neuerlichen Katastrophenserie, die um die Weihnachtstage Russland heimsuchte. Bei uns fast nur als Randnotiz wahrgenommen. Den Heimsuchungen liegt ein zutiefst inhumaner Geist zugrunde. Noch unverarbeitet ist der feige Mord an Botschafter Andrej Karlow in Ankara am 19. 12. Der offenbar schutzlose Diplomat wurde von einem fraglos dazu aufgehetzten, blutjungen „Sicherheitsmann“ durch mehrere Schüsse von hinten niedergestreckt. Minutenlang kam ihm keine Hilfe zu. Die Ambulanz brauchte eine Ewigkeit bis zum Unfallort. Nur wenige Stunden später, warf das opferreiche Attentat am Berliner Breitscheidplatz, einen Rauchvorhang vor die Berichterstattung über die Mordtat in der türkischen Hauptstadt. Gestern nun stürzte am 1. Weihnachtstag in aller Frühe rein "zufällig" eine Tupolev-154 Maschine des russischen Verteidigungsministeriums bei Sochi ins Meer. Der Flieger hatte das Alexandrow Essemble an Bord. Die Truppe bleibt weltberühmt, auch als der „Rote-Armee-Chor mit heute 84 überwiegend jungen Sängern, Musikern und sogar drei Tänzerinnen. Die Maschine stürzte nur zwei Minuten nach dem Start des Flugzeugs bei Sotschi ins Meer. Außer den beliebten Musikern waren mehrere Reporter und Kameraleute an Bord und die Ärztin Elizaveta Glinka, die russische Mutter Theresa. Sie alle wollten humanitäre Hilfe leisten und zu Neujahr ihre noch in Syrien stationierten Kameraden mit einem Konzert moralisch bei ihrem wichtigen Einsatz für die Menschenrechte, gegen den Terror unterstützen. Dr. “Liza“, wie die unermüdliche Helferin zärtlich von den ihren genannt wurde, wollte medizinische Ausrüstung für die Uniklinik in Latakia überbringen. Die Besatzung der Maschine und alle Flugzeuginsassen wurden statt dessen mit einem Schlag ausgelöscht. Ihr Zielort war die russische Militärbasis Khmeimim in Latakia.

Die Ermordung des Botschafters Karlow in Ankara könnte allein schon ein Sarajewo-Moment sein. Die Tat, begangen mit dem vollmundigen Rachespruch, dies sei die Revanche für Aleppo, kommt einem Angriff auf die Atom-Macht Russland gleich. Sollte sich ungeachtet aller gegenteiligen Vermutungen und Verlautbarungen herausstellen, dass dem Flugzeugabsturz der TU-154 kein menschliches oder technisches Versagen zugrunde liegt, dann ist der scheinbar allgegenwärtige Kriegsfuror ein Stück näher an Russland herangerückt. Vor dem Hintergrund der letzten bedrohlichen Rede des scheidenden US-Präsidenten Obama*, der ganz unverhohlen Russland für die Niederlage seiner präferierten Kandidatin die Verantwortung zu schob und der dafür mit Rache drohte, auch auf verdeckte Weise, so seine Worte, sind die jüngsten Ereignisse in Ankara, Berlin, Zürich und Sochi durchaus in einem Zusammenhang zu sehen. Sie verheißen der Welt nichts Gutes. Den Niedergang des Imperiums werden sie aber nicht aufzuhalten vermögen – so oder so.
___________
* http://theduran.com/obama-is-ready-to-punish-russia-for-allegedly-hacking-the-us-elections/
The Washington Post (the publication that got the ball rolling on “fake news” fiction) is reporting that the Obama administration is close to announcing a series of measures to punish Russia for its interference in the 2016 presidential election, including economic sanctions and diplomatic censure, according to U.S. officials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQmfZ1JygMw

https://www.rt.com/news/371884-alexandrov-choir-performing-america/

The tragic loss of the Alexandrov Choir (VIDEO)
All but three members of Russia’s most beloved vocal music ensemble are lost for ever

Fake News

CrossTalk

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  It is called fake news and we are told it is dangerous. Maybe we can agree on this. But let there be no mistake – it is governments and mainstream media that have peddled fake news for decades. And this is being challenged. CrossTalking with...

  Dec 26, 2016 08:26

https://www.rt.com/on-air/

German Resistance to Russia Detente Gilbert Doctorow

EDITOR'S CHOICE | 25.12.2016

Gilbert Doctorow is the European Coordinator of The American Committee for East West Accord Ltd. His latest book, Does Russia Have a Future? was published in August 20, 2015

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is staggered by security lapses that may have permitted a fatal terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, the question many inside and outside Germany are asking is how this may affect the chances of her CDU party and its junior affiliate in Bavaria (CSU) to dominate the 2017 parliamentary elections and form the next government.

Her personal standing has weathered a number of crises in the past year, and polls before the terror attack gave her about a 50 percent approval rating. Moreover, within the CDU itself, she received more than 89 percent backing at the party convention in Essen a couple of weeks ago to remain at the helm and fight for another term as Chancellor next October.

Russian President Vladimir Putin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on May 10, 2015, at the Kremlin. (Photo from Russian government)

That being said, the party has not done as well as Merkel. It lost several regional elections this past fall and the leader of her Bavarian affiliate, Herr Seehofer, was nipping at her heels over her continued hardline economic sanctions against Russia relating to the Ukraine crisis and more particularly over her lenient admission of around one million Mideast immigrants.

One of the widely noted features of Angela Merkel’s ten-years-plus in office is that she has sidelined all possible competitors, not only within her party but even in the leading opposition party, the Socialists (SPD) with whom she has shared a coalition government.

Just what this means in practice I saw firsthand last Friday when I was in Berlin for an event organized and attended by SPD party officials and supporters. The event was a press briefing at the Bundestag announcing the European launch of Détente Now! (or “Neue Entspannungspolitik Jetzt!” in German) after its U.S. debut with an op-ed in The Nation. The launch on two continents was meant to draw attention to the overarching objective of establishing a new peaceful Atlanticism to replace the neocon-dominated Atlantic Alliance that has developed over the past two decades in a malignant way, bringing us into a New Cold War and, in the estimation of some of us, to the brink of a hot war.

Judged as a “press briefing,” the meeting was a failure. Out of the 20 or so participants, there were just three journalists. One came from Deutsche Welle – not to prepare a report or do interviews but to ask insulting questions, such as why Russian President Vladimir Putin’s signature was not on the appeal to reinstate the policy of rapprochement with Moscow that German Chancellor Willy Brandt had championed nearly a half century ago.

Explaining the History of Détente

The significance of the event lay elsewhere as several organizers of Détente Now! met with representatives of German church groups, pacifist movements, one former Greens politician, and American friends of the initiative (myself and one other). But the single most important politician in the room was SPD Bundestag member Ute Finckh-Kraemer, a longtime supporter of peaceful coexistence who keeps the memory of détente’s great thinker Egon Bahr shining bright.

Ute Finckh-Krämer is on the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee and is Deputy Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Arms Control and Disarmament. In that context, it was illuminating to hear her response to a somewhat hostile question: namely how can you consider implementing détente with Russia when Putin is doing so many nasty things like flying military aircraft around the Baltic Sea with their transponders turned off?

Finckh-Kraemer reminded the questioner of just how Entspannungspolitik originally came about, not at a time of easy relations with Moscow but amid dangerous tensions. Détente toward Moscow was first implemented by Willie Brandt in 1969 in response to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia the preceding August to oust a reformist regime. Instead of imposing sanctions on the Soviet Union, Brandt sent his assistant, Egon Bahr, to Moscow for extensive talks with the Kremlin with plans to draw closer to them and seek to influence their behavior from within.

Finckh-Kraemer argued that what is urgently needed today is precisely what Brandt undertook in 1969, a policy of de-escalating tensions without preconditions. With her comments, Finckh-Kraemer demonstrated that within the SPD there are very able defenders of détente who understand with great clarity why it’s needed.

The problem is that the party as a whole is enthralled to discipline of the coalition government with the CDU and to its own internal hierarchy, where the most senior voices of the party, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Sigmar Gabriel, lack charisma and seem to lack as well the courage to openly challenge the “group think” coming from Washington and passing down through Merkel to the whole German government.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier

The apologists for Steinmeier explained that he, like Merkel, helped frame the still-uncompleted Minsk-2 accords regarding the Ukraine crisis in 2015 out of fear that the then-imminent defeat of Ukrainian forces in the Debaltsevo Cauldron might cause the United States to step up its military support for Kiev, risking an all-out proxy war with Russia that could spread the conflagration into Central Europe.

Since then, it would appear that Steinmeier and Merkel have remained fearful of breaking with Washington over the anti-Russian sanctions or over Syria lest the Obama administration do something reckless in its final weeks in office.

That is a different approach from what is happening in France where Republican candidate Francois Fillon – emboldened by Donald Trump’s U.S. victory – made improved relations with Russia a key element in his successful primary campaign in November.

Can Germany Shift?

In Germany, the question is: will the timorous SPD and the pigheaded CDU continue to hold to these New Cold War policies during the fall 2017 federal elections? The answer seems to be yes, unless the issue is seriously addressed now and a constituency arises favoring a more constructive approach toward Russia.

Within the SPD, the two main contenders for party leadership as candidates for Chancellor are Sigmar Gabriel, who is presently serving as Deputy Chancellor for Economics, and Martin Schulz, the outgoing President of the European Parliament. Of the two, Schulz is arguably the more “charismatic” if that is taken to mean outwardly self-confident, even strident. But Schulz brings with him the baggage of his association with the increasingly unpopular European Union bureaucracy.

During his years in the European Union’s institutions, Schulz was a defender of what is called “democracy promotion,” the West’s funding and training of activists who then challenge – through media propaganda and street protests – governments that are regarded as insufficiently liberal. In that context, Schulz has been arrogant and censorious towards Russia, very much in line with the policy that developed in Berlin over the same period.

Gabriel is less involved in foreign policy and lacks his own message regarding future relations with Russia.

Meanwhile, from my correspondence with leading experts on Russia within the SPD’s main think tank, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, I must conclude that people with a distinctly neocon or “liberal interventionist” viewpoint continue to rule the roost there. One does not get very far in the think tank by calling for a change of direction on Russia without being labeled “Putin Versteher,” a pejorative that roughly translates to “Putin sympathizer” and is fatal to any political career.

The same holds true for the Foundation’s foreign relations magazine, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft (IPG). Reading through the issues since the U.S. presidential election, you could easily assume that the journal is edited by frustrated members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Its featured articles and authors are all anti-Trump and anti-détente. With this think tank and magazine, it’s hard to see how the SPD can develop a new foreign policy that deviates from Merkel’s anti-Russian orthodoxy.

Of course, there is more to German politics than the CDU and SPD, which together in the last elections gathered less than 60 percent of the votes. But the other parties also do not give much reason for hope that Germany can change direction.

President-elect Donald Trump

Die Linke (the Left) has some very courageous thinkers and politicians on the issue of foreign policy, none more so that Bundestag Member Sahra Wagenknecht. But Die Linke is split internally and engaged in petty wrangling, so that its electoral performance remains well below its potential.

Meanwhile, the German Greens have been — from their very beginning, going back to the days of Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Joscha Fischer — a virulently anti-Russian force. There are signs that the party has some dissenting voices today on the Russia issue, but not enough to shift the course of German foreign policy.

That leaves the far-right Alternativ fuer Deutschland, which, like the Front National in France, is unequivocally in favor of normalizing relations with Russia. But the anti-immigration and other social issues espoused by the nationalist and xenophobic AfD puts them out of play for any coalition formations.

For all of the above reasons, it will take a small miracle for the Entspannungspolitik initiative to move forward and capture the imagination of the SPD and win at the polls in the autumn of 2017. That miracle could come either from France, where a veto on current E.U. foreign policy is virtually certain following the April elections and will position France as a direct competitor to Germany for leadership in the E.U. Or it may come from the U.S., depending on how the Trump administration handles relations with Germany and the E.U.

consortiumnews.com source:http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/12/25/german-resistance-russia-detente.html

War-torn Aleppo celebrates Christmas, shares stories of joy & loss with RT (EXCLUSIVE)

This year, many people in the liberated city of Aleppo are celebrating for the first time since the war began. RT’s Lizzie Phelan talked with residents of the war-ravaged city now recovering from its wounds.

The Greatest Gift For All Christmas Column, 2016

Paul Craig Roberts EDITOR'S CHOICE | 24.12.2016

Dear Donors, thank you for your support in 2016. Although you have kept me working yet another year, I find it encouraging that there are some Americans who can think independently and who want to know. As Margaret Mead said, it only takes a few determined people to change the world. Perhaps some of you will be those people.

My traditional Christmas column goes back to sometime in the 1990s when I was a newspaper columnist. It has been widely reprinted at home and abroad. Every year two or three readers write to educate me that religion is the source of wars and persecutions. These readers confuse religion with mankind’s abuse of institutions, religious or otherwise. The United States has democratic institutions and legal institutions to protect civil liberties. Nevertheless, we now have a police state. Shall I argue that democracy and civil liberty are the causes of police states?

Some readers also are confused about hypocrisy. There is a vast difference between proclaiming moral principles that one might fail to live up to and proclaiming immoral principles that are all too easy to keep.

Liberty is a human achievement. We have it, or had it, because those who believed in it fought to achieve it. As I explain in my Christmas column, people were able to fight for liberty because Christianity empowered the individual.

The other cornerstone of our culture is the Constitution. Indeed, the United States is the Constitution. Without the Constitution, the United States is a different country, and Americans a different people. This is why assaults on the Constitution by the Bush and Obama regimes are assaults on America that are far worse than any assaults by terrorists. There is not much that we can do about these assaults, but we should not through ignorance enable the assaults or believe the government’s claim that safety requires the curtailment of civil liberty.

In a spirit of goodwill, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a successful New Year.

Paul Craig Roberts

The Greatest Gift For All

Christmas is a time of traditions. If you have found time in the rush before Christmas to decorate a tree, you are sharing in a relatively new tradition. Although the Christmas tree has ancient roots, at the beginning of the 20th century only 1 in 5 American families put up a tree. It was 1920 before the Christmas tree became the hallmark of the season. Calvin Coolidge was the first President to light a national Christmas tree on the White House lawn.

Gifts are another shared custom. This tradition comes from the wise men or three kings who brought gifts to baby Jesus. When I was a kid, gifts were more modest than they are now, but even then people were complaining about the commercialization of Christmas. We have grown accustomed to the commercialization. Christmas sales are the backbone of many businesses. Gift giving causes us to remember others and to take time from our harried lives to give them thought.

The decorations and gifts of Christmas are one of our connections to a Christian culture that has held Western civilization together for 2,000 years.

In our culture the individual counts. This permits an individual person to put his or her foot down, to take a stand on principle, to become a reformer and to take on injustice.

This empowerment of the individual is unique to Western civilization. It has made the individual a citizen equal in rights to all other citizens, protected from tyrannical government by the rule of law and free speech. These achievements are the products of centuries of struggle, but they all flow from the teaching that God so values the individual’s soul that he sent his son to die so we might live. By so elevating the individual, Christianity gave him a voice.

Formerly only those with power had a voice. But in Western civilization people with integrity have a voice. So do people with a sense of justice, of honor, of duty, of fair play. Reformers can reform, investors can invest, and entrepreneurs can create commercial enterprises, new products and new occupations.

The result was a land of opportunity. The United States attracted immigrants who shared our values and reflected them in their own lives. Our culture was absorbed by a diverse people who became one.

In recent decades we have lost sight of the historic achievement that empowered the individual. The religious, legal and political roots of this great achievement are no longer reverently taught in high schools, colleges and universities or respected by our government. The voices that reach us through the millennia and connect us to our culture are being silenced by “political correctness” and “the war on terror.” Prayer has been driven from schools and Christian religious symbols from public life.

Constitutional protections have been diminished by hegemonic political ambitions. Indefinite detention, torture, and murder are now acknowledged practices of the United States government. The historic achievement of due process has been rolled back. Tyranny has re-emerged.

Diversity at home and hegemony abroad are consuming values and are dismantling the culture and the rule of law. There is plenty of room for cultural diversity in the world, but not within a single country. A Tower of Babel has no culture. A person cannot be a Christian one day, a pagan the next and a Muslim the day after. A hodgepodge of cultural and religious values provides no basis for law – except the raw power of the pre-Christian past.

All Americans have a huge stake in Christianity. Whether or not we are individually believers in Christ, we are beneficiaries of the moral doctrine that has curbed power and protected the weak.

Power is the horse ridden by evil. In the 20th century the horse was ridden hard, and the 21st century shows an increase in pace. Millions of people were exterminated in the 20th century by National Socialists in Germany and by Soviet and Chinese communists simply because they were members of a race or class that had been demonized by intellectuals and political authority. In the beginning years of the 21st century, hundreds of thousands of Muslims in seven countries have already been murdered and millions displaced in order to extend Washington’s hegemony.

Power that is secularized and cut free of civilizing traditions is not limited by moral and religious scruples. V.I. Lenin made this clear when he defined the meaning of his dictatorship as “unlimited power, resting directly on force, not limited by anything.” Washington’s drive for hegemony over US citizens and the rest of the world is based entirely on the exercise of force and is resurrecting unaccountable power.

Christianity’s emphasis on the worth of the individual makes such power as Lenin claimed, and Washington now claims, unthinkable. Be we religious or be we not, our celebration of Christ’s birthday celebrates a religion that made us masters of our souls and of our political life on Earth. Such a religion as this is worth holding on to even by atheists.

As we enter into 2017, Western civilization, the product of thousands of years of striving, hangs in the balance. Degeneracy is everywhere before our eyes. As the West sinks into tyranny, will Western peoples defend their liberty and their souls, or will they sink into the tyranny, which again has raised its ugly and all devouring head?

paulcraigroberts.org source:http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/12/24/greatest-gift-for-all.html

Gnadenloser Zynismus auf dem Rücken bedauernswerter Opfer Willy Wimmer

(aktualisiert 17:19 22.12.2016) Zum Lkw-Anschlag auf Berliner Weihnachtsmarkt  Nach dem Anschlag in Berlin wird durch die Staatsredner unser Land beschworen. Offen und freiheitlich sei dieses Land, was die Deutschen sich nach den Verheerungen des letzten Jahrhunderts aufgebaut haben. Erst Nizza, dann Berlin: Warum Europas Sicherheitsdienste versagen Das gelte es zu bewahren und das wolle man sich durch diejenigen, die die feigen Morde von Berlin zu verantworten haben, auch nicht nehmen lassen. Das ist gnadenloser Zynismus auf dem Rücken bedauernswerter Opfer. Sie wollten ein Glas Glühwein genießen und sie fanden den Tod oder schwerste Verstümmelungen. Alles das, was unseren Staat und das liebens- und lebenswerte deutsche Vaterland  ausmacht, gründet sich auf der Achtung vor dem Recht, dem Respekt  vor den Gesetzen und darauf, dass bislang alle vor dem Gesetz gleich sind und sich frei äußern können. Papst Benedikt XVI. hat es im  Plenum des Deutschen Bundestages formuliert: der Staat als Räuberbande, wenn er das Recht nicht achtet.  Merkel führte vor gut einem Jahr "Regierung durch Rechtsbruch" ein Merkel ergreift das Wort zu Weihnachtsmarkt-Tragödie –  Der Ministerpräsident des Freistaates Bayern, dem letzten Rest  deutscher leistungsstarker Staatlichkeit, sprach in Zusammenhang mit der Missachtung deutschen und europäischen Rechts durch die Frau Bundeskanzlerin von "Unrecht". Er nannte das, was alle sehen    konnten, das was es war: Die Öffnung der Grenzen zugunsten von  inzwischen Millionen Menschen, die auf diesen Zugang nach  Deutschland in der Regel kein Recht hatten und haben.  Die Folgen sind innerstaatlich riesig und äußern sich nicht nur darin, dass Milliarden Euro, die außerhalb unserer Grenzen als Hilfe eine  ungeheure Wirkung haben würden, regelrecht verschleudert werden. Die Armen, die es in Deutschland in zu großer Zahl gibt, müssen feststellen, dass die staatliche Fürsorge nicht ihnen, sondern denen gilt,  die sich um nichts geschert haben, auch nicht um deutsche Gesetze. 
 Wie auch die Bundeskanzlerin nicht, was die Dinge nicht leichter macht. Sie hat sich außer Stande gesehen, unsere Grenzen zu   schützen und damit die Grundvoraussetzungen für die freie Gesellschaft. Jetzt müssen wir erleben, dass Zensur als Kitt für unseren  Staat herhalten muss und die Gewehre, mit denen man unsere Grenzen nicht schützen wollte, an den Bahnhöfen, Flughäfen, Einkaufszentren und Plätzen im Lande selbst auf uns gerichtet werden.   Die übliche Mechanik wirkt auch und wir werden alle erleben, dass jetzt Großkoalitionäre alles das an Militarisierung unseres Gemeinwesens umsetzen, wogegen sich eine freiheitliche Gesellschaft bislang erfolgreich gewehrt hatte.  Minister Bouillon aus Saarbrücken sorgt für Klarheit: wir leben im  Krieg. Die Wahlentscheidung in den USA bewahrt uns vor einem großen Krieg Man mag es nicht wahrhaben, aber es ist so. Ohne auf die eigene Verfassung, die Regeln des Völkerrechtes oder das Soldatengesetz zu achten, wurde Schulterschluss mit den angelsächsischen Welteroberern seit dem völkerrechtswidrigen Krieg gegen Jugoslawien gepflegt. Überall dort, wo wir seither unsere Soldaten ohne Rücksicht auf Recht und Gesetz eingesetzt haben, erklärten wir Krieg, ohne dabei die  Regeln zu beachten, auch nicht durch eine notwendige  Beschlussfassung im Deutschen Bundestag.  Wen wundert es unter diesen Umständen, dass der Krieg sich gegen uns richtet? Oder hat bei uns jemand geglaubt, Menschen umbringen zu können ohne Reaktionen heraufbeschwören zu müssen. Verheerend wäre es unter diesen Umständen, die Folgen unseres mörderischen Tuns in gewohnter Weise handhabbarer zu machen, statt an die Wurzeln zu gehen: Es muss wieder Frieden und Völkerrecht her.  Migrationspolitik nach Lkw-Anschlag: „Deutschland wird seinen Trump nicht bekommen“ Das geht nicht ohne die USA, die uns und die Welt in den letzten 20 Jahren ins Elend gestoßen haben. Der Umstand, dass sich mit  dem neuen Präsidenten Trump etwas ändern könnte, wenn man seine öffentlichen Aussagen heranzieht, verursacht bei unserer eigenen Regierung eine gesteigerte Form von Politik-Panik. Nachdem man sich freudig  an der Vernichtung umgebender Zivilisationen beteiligt hatte, droht mit einem Präsidenten Trump Friede und Verständigung.   Dies vor allem deshalb, weil in Moskau jemand in den letzten Jahren die Nerven behalten hat. Wie anders könnte eine neue Zusammenarbeit aussehen als auf der Grundlage des Völkerrechtes und der Verständigung? Nachdem die europäischen Staaten die Charta von Paris des Jahres 1990 verraten haben, gibt es neue Hoffnung. Die will man in Berlin nicht wahrhaben und hält es mit der fortdauernden Gefahr für die internationale Sicherheit und Ordnung. Dagegen müssen wir als Nation aufstehen, wie es in diesen Tagen die Polen machen. Die Meinung des Autors muss nicht mit dem Standpunkt der Redaktion übereinstimmen. 

Mehr: https://de.sputniknews.com/kommentare/20161221313859953-deutschland-gefahr-sicherheit-ordnung/

Das Ende der Pax Americana

Leserforum

Tages-Anzeiger, 2016-12-20

Das Ende der Pax Americana - Der Fall von Aleppo kündigt eine Zeitenwende an, mit dem russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin als Sieger, TA vom 17. 12.

«Die Abwahl Merkels wäre die beste Lösung»

Die USA haben den Planeten ruiniert.

Das Ende der Pax Americana kann nur zum Vorteil der Welt sein, denn es gibt auf der ganzen Welt kein Land, das in den letzten 120 Jahren mehr Kriege angezettelt und geführt hat als die USA. Die USA, als willfähriges Ausführungsorgan der Finanzoligarchen dieser Welt, haben den Planeten ruiniert und Leid und Tod über Millionen Menschen gebracht. Die Verteufelung Putins hat mit seiner Ablehnung der Gentechnologie im Agrarbereich noch einmal zusätzlich Schub bekommen. Von der «Annexion» der Krim zu schreiben, ist eine Abwertung der Demokratie, denn die Sezession der Krim wurde von deren Bevölkerung beschlossen. Dass sich Europa im Auftrag der USA von Russland abwenden musste und damit Millionenverluste kassierte, ist ein weiterer Beweis für die Unmündigkeit der Europäer. Die Abwahl Merkels scheint hier die beste Lösung, um den Weg frei zu machen für eine produktivere und friedlichere Beziehung zu Russland.

Elisabeth Heer, Winterthur

Death of Geneva format, new format for resolving the Syrian conflict, more facts in the murder of Russia’s Ambassador.

Russia, Iran, Turkey: countries who are deciding the future of Syria. New format for resolving the Syrian conflict has been established on Tuesday.

The US has been pushed out of the Middle East and has lost most of its influence despite of its military presence in Iraq.

Ankara took the role of the mediator with the “opposition”  per the Russian government’s request. This completely puts Washington and the EU format out of business. On December 16, the president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev issued a statement: “The Russian and Turkish leaders expressed interest in holding peace negotiations in Astana of the conflicting parties in Syria. Nursultan Nazarbayev supported that initiative and announced his preparedness to provide a platform for such talks in the Kazakh capital.”

The US State Department spokesperson John Kirby during his daily press briefing on December 20th stated that also the US wasn’t a party to the talks on Syria the Secretary of State’s John Kerry was briefed by the Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and by the Foreign Minister of Turkey,  there also was a press briefing after the meeting which the US was allowed to attend.

Listen to the first ten minutes of the Kirby trying to calm down the hysterical American journalists who were asking him if the US has lost its influence around the world. He tried to smooth it out and downplayed the simple fact that the US has become irrelevant in the Middle East, despite of its military and secret services operations there.

“The secretary doesn’t see this as a snub at all. He sees it as another multilateral effort to try to get a lasting peace in Syria and he welcomes any progress towards that.”

“We would obviously refute any notion that … the fact that we weren’t at this one meeting is somehow a harbinger or a litmus test for U.S. influence and leadership there or anywhere else around the world.”

“We are not excluded, we are not being sidelined.”

Normally, I wouldn’t post the State department press briefing video, but this one is just too good to miss.

During the meetings on Tuesday  the Moscow Declaration to end the Syrian War was adopted without any presence of the US. Russia, Turkey & Iran stated that they are ready to be guarantors in resolving Syrian crisis – Russian defense minister.

It’s clearly reflects Russia’s growing links with Iran and Turkey, despite of the attempt to undermine the process by murdering  on Monday the Russia’s ambassador to Turkey.

At this point, the terror attacks on Russia and its allies before major diplomatic events have become routine.  However, instead of sidelining those events, these terror attacks bring the major powers in Eurasia, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Kazakhstan, India and everyone else together. Essentially we see in real time how terror attacks serve as catalysis to speed up the process of unification of Eurasia in the process of pushing the US and EU out of the continent, and curbing Israel’s and Saudis’ lust for blood in the region.

Like a wounded monster, the US tries to bring as much harm to Russia as it can. On December 20, Washington announced more political and economic sanctions of Russia this time on gas producer Novatek. Also on the list Crimean Ports, Crimean Railways, Stroiproekt Institute, Transflot, and two vessels bearing the Russian flag “Marshal Zhukov” and “Stalingrad.”  Also more sanctions are imposed on the Glavgosexpertiza Rossii, the leading Russian institution dealing with expert reviews of design documents and findings of engineering surveys.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov made a statement saying that:

“We will be expanding our lists, we will see how we can respond asymmetrically. We reserve the right to choose the timing, the venue and form of counter-moves the way that will suit us, and the way it will be relevant to our own priorities in the American direction.” 

Russian, Turkish, Iranian FMs speak after Moscow meeting on Syria (Streamed live)by RT

Some new facts in the murder of the Russian Ambassador

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case on this assassination. A working group went to Ankara to take part in the probe into this crime together with the Turkish investigation.

President Putin said that “Karlov died as a soldier. He was an illustrious diplomat, enjoying a very good reputation in the country of his mission, he had good relations with the leadership of Turkey as well as with other political forces that respected him.”

On December 20th, Ergodan confirmed that a joint team has started probing into Russian ambassador’s murder

One of the Turkey’s pro-government daily Yeni Safak had published materials that points at the CIA being behind the assassination of Russian ambassador.

Hamza Sulyman, a retired Syrian army sniper tweeted some interesting photos:

During the Moscow meeting bodyguard of the Iranian Foreign Minister watching the bodyguard of the Turkish Foreign Minister

Photo of the killer while still in the police force

Also a touching footage of people in liberated Aleppo, reminds me of similar footage of people in liberated Warsaw and Berlin.

Someone from the German AfD lamented that “thanks to Assad, in Syria you can now celebrate Christmas safer than in Germany. Merkel must go!”

Don’t say that he had too many beers.

Peskov disclosed a bit of information on the Russian investigative group. It includes eighteen officers of special services, doctors and psychiatrists. They have been in Turkey from the second part of Tuesday.

The Russian Ambassador, as we know, had no Russian security detail. In essence, Russian security has not being allowed to operate and to carry arms outside of the mission according to the international practices, it’s the hosting country responsibility to provide the security for the foreign diplomats.

After being wounded, the Ambassador was without medical attention for 25 minutes.

A week ago, the assassin took part in the  “protection” of the Russian Embassy, when an anti-Russian meeting in the protest against the liberation of Aleppo was organized near the mission’ building.

The shooting occurred at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in Ankara’s central Cankaya district,  the Turkish state-run media agency.

On the day of the attack, the assassin stayed in a hotel near the art center. 

While Altintas was not on duty, he used his police identification badge to enter the gallery with a gun, per Hurriyet Daily News.

The metal detectors were used at the entrance to the gallery, but there was no increased security because of the ambassador’s presence.

“This attack is a provocation aimed at disrupting our relations. I condemn it vehemently.” Erdogan

Altintas has not been tied to any Islamic terror organizations, on the contrary there are facts pointing that he was a part of the pro-Washington anti-government putsch, and that he was working  with the US and Israel intelligence.

Mert Altintas was later killed during a gunfight with security forces, authorities told Anadolu, the Turkish state-run media agency. The operation to stop Altintas was led by special forces, Anadolu reports. He was shot about 15 minutes after the initial attack.

Russia’s intelligence expressed the dissatisfaction that he was killed, instead of being taken alive.

There are witness accounts, don’t know how credible, saying that he was surrendering when he was killed.

Someone pointed out the terrorist’s last name was Altintas, that could be translated as “gold stone” or Goldstein. Also, there was information that Altintas was actively involved with Turkish neo-liberal organizations in the US like “Young Turks.”

In November the Duran posted the following: “To watching the entire Young Turks team meltdown live on air as they insult all of America, call people “f***in dumb”, and then go on a bizarre rant threatening the DNC with all out war.”

On December 19th, in the wake of assassination President Putin had an emergency meeting with the Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the head of foreign intelligence services Sergei Naryshkin  and Alexander Bortnikov, the Director of the FSB.

“We have to know who gave orders to the assassin.” said Putin

Slain ambassador’s body arrives in Moscow, met by Russian & Turkish FMs 

FM Lavrov speaks on assassinated ambassador to Turkey 

The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Russia’s Ambassador Andrei Karlov was working to establish contacts with the Syrian opposition.   He was talking to all sides of the Syrian conflict and was facilitating the dialogue between Syrian government and the opposition. “Consider this, this tragedy takes a completely new dimension.”

Apparently, Karlov’s work with the Syrian opposition somehow was leaked out to the West. On December 1, 2016 the Financial Times reported that  Syrian rebels in secret talks with Moscow to end Aleppo fighting. “Turkey-facilitated negotiations without US show how Washington could become sidelined”

The way Erica Solomon phrases it for FT makes Kirby’s statements that the US only wants peace in the region regardless of an authorship of this peace sound like bold-faced lie. This also completely debasing one of the all time favorite Washington’s meme that Russia wants to destroy the “democratic Syrian opposition.” 

” Syrian rebels are in secret talks with Russia to end the fighting in Aleppo, according to opposition figures, a development that shows how the US could become sidelined in some of the Middle East’s most pivotal conflicts.”

“The Russians and Turks are talking without the US now. It [Washington] is completely shut out of these talks, and doesn’t even know what’s going on in Ankara,” said one opposition figure, who asked not to be identified.”

This kind of situation couldn’t be tolerated by the Obama’s regime. No wonder that according to the Russia’s officials an assassination of the Ambassador was carried out by the CIA.

I want to use this SITREP to address a couple of issues that I believe are being misunderstood  in terms of Russia and Turkey relations.

Turkey has a powerful and very active pro-Washington, pro-Israel and pro-EU opposition. On the top of this, Turkey is heavily infected with NATO and other foreign intelligence operatives, including those who operate as jihadists. The 5th columnists, accompanied by the motley crew of murderers for hire are doing everything, including the demolition of the Turkish economy and the assassination attempts on  Erdogan. Those who scream that Russia has to instantly cut off all the relations with ” Turkey the Backstabber” are only helping those neo-liberal interests.

Frankly, if Russia were to cut the diplomatic ties with Turkey today, tomorrow every Russian ambassador would be killed in every country. We are in the middle of the 1st World War in the twenty first century: the American and European war on Russia.

Only, unable to burn down Russian villages, and to hang Russian women and children in their town squares, democrats take down Russian passenger planes and kill ambassadors.

We have been dealing with this European sustained hatred towards Russians for centuries. When it comes to the emotional competency, the long-term hatred is delegated to those parts of human brain that deals with the most  primitive skills. For me, this is representative of any average European.

In the US, the large part of the population doesn’t have this hatred and wants to have better relations with Russia, but until recently these people had no voice. The majority of those who have the political power and the media are those with the Brutish, Eastern European, and Israeli roots.

Long story short, the last war with Turkey was over 100 years ago, while we had two major wars with Europe in between. Turkey didn’t attack the Soviet Union during the last Europe’s war on Russia, despite  of the Germany’s insistence and the covert British terror attacks on the Turks. Sounds familiar, right?

So, we were able to sustain good relations with Turkey. It’s our ally in the Middle East now, and it has its own very important mission. Only with Turkey, Russia and Iran can lock Europeans and Americans out of the ME, lock Israel and Saudis in, and with this to stabilize the region.

Turkey is developing better relations with the Syrian government, with Iran, and even with China, despite some bitter terror problems. Ergodan is now our guy. He is very smart, he is a patriot, and he wants what the best for his country. He has understood recently that Turkey will be peaceful and prosperous only as a part of a greater Eurasian union.

About Turkish troops in Northern Syria: Turks entered Syria per agreement between them, Russia, Iran and Syrian governments. The issue is very transparent. The US, Israel and EU want to divide Syria, and to create the Northern Syrian land corridor called Kurdistan. Washington was looking to have a complete control over this puppet territory, to control oil and gas routes to Europe, and to set up dry land routes for the military to move closer to the Iran’s, Russia’s, Afghanistan’s, Kazakhstan’s, China’s borders. This corridor would give the Western allies power to interrupt the trade routes, including the Silk Road and the North-South corridor from Russia to India via Iran.

If the north of Syria would be made into a land corridor and was occupied by the Western allies this would eventfully bring complete devastation to the entirety of Eurasia, not just the Middle East.

One after another nations that are still standing would be pushed back into stone age. Kurds, as the agents provocateurs,  had already played their parts in the devastation of Iraq and Syria. It was them who went to the UN and cried crocodile tears and demanded the “international community” to punish Saddam for some made up crimes against them. See how Egypt just arrested a group producing videos of “injured children of Aleppo” with fake blood and teddy bears, just to get a glimpse into the industrial production of fake video evidences of nonexistent war crimes.

For the past two centuries, the Kurdish elite has been serving the British crown, and with the same passion and devotion they have laid themselves under Washington.

I have to admit that there are healthy groups of Kurds who want to cooperate with the Syrian and Turkish governments, and who just want to be the normal citizens of their countries.

Those, however, who dream the impossible dream that Washington would create for them a heaven on earth, end up terrorizing Turkey with at least 300 people killed and over thousand of injured, in a course of one year. They have turned a prosperous, peaceful, tourist oriented country into a terror hellhole.

Knowing all this and more, the Syrian government could not start fighting with the Syrian Kurds for obvious reasons, since they are citizens and fight with ISIS. Russia and Iran couldn’t do anything either. The only other country that has the legitimate reason to use military force to bring Kurds to heel is Turkey. That’s why the Turkish troops are in Syria. They are acting as place-holders  o make sure that Western troops can’t get there.

Thank you for your time,

Scott and Baaz

Follow Scott on Twitter for more videos, images, news and feedback

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