My main beef with his premise is that Russian regular army formations were used in eastern Ukraine, which I do not believe they were.
The Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny recently said that were it not for Western economic sanctions, Russian tanks would already have swept west to the port city of Odessa, occupying a huge swath of Southern Ukraine and cutting off the rest of the country from the Black Sea. He's probably right, yet it won't count for much if Ukraine's government doesn't take advantage of the respite sanctions have provided by changing course.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has in recent weeks rekindled the war in Eastern Ukraine, and it's important to understand the role that Ukrainian actions have played in this. It's equally important to recognize that sanctions can't defeat Putin; they can only make him more cautious and open to a settlement.
It was just last September that Putin initiated the Minsk cease-fire agreement, halting his tanks after they had reversed many of the gains Ukraine's military had made against Eastern separatists over the summer. And it's a fair assumption that Europe's threat to impose heavier economic sanctions influenced his decision to stop his advance.
#2
Ill say or infer it again - THE MORE "WEIRD", ANARCHIC OR CHAOTIC OR "ALTERNATIST", ETC. IN THE US-WORLD, THE BETTER FOR RISING COMMIE AMERIKA + LEGAL SHARIA.
Rising Commie Amerika [+ Other e.g. Sinomerika? Hispanomerika?] = in parallel, synonymous, or linked to RISING ISLAMERIKA/AMERABIA.
[HIGHLANDER = "IN THE END, THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE" here].
'Leading from behind.' A White House official coined that phrase in 2011 to describe President Obama's Libyan policy. His political opponents quickly seized on that characterization as an apt metaphor for how the president conducts foreign policy.
While the Administration pushed back, liberal pundits embraced the phrase--at least initially. 'If leading from behind brings the success of the Libyan intervention... 'lead me from behind, Mr. President,' cheered New York Times columnist Roger Cohen.
The Daily Beastâ's Michael Tomasky purred, '...this Libya operation is, so far, not only a big success, but also a historic accomplishment in American history.'
That was then. Libya today is a hell hole. No serious observer of foreign policy regards that operation as a success. Indeed, the world today is littered with spectacular U.S. foreign policy failures.
Remember the Russian 'reset'? Dialog and a nuclear arms treaty that let Moscow stand pat while we reduced our arsenal were going to lead to a new era of understanding. Instead, Croatia's [sic!] been annexed; Ukraine is under attack, and relations between Washington and the Kremlin are worse than any time since the Cold War.
Pulling out of Iraq according to a timetable rather than the situation on the ground? That opened the door for ISIS to get a strong foothold. Today, it controls a third of Iraq and much of Syria.
#1
As I've said times before, ITS "GOOD OWG GLOBALISM".
Unfortunately, it remains highly dubious or questionable iff the US can effec maintain or protect its "Sole" Superpower credibility by "leading from behind" - THE "GREAT GAME" WOULD ARGUE SUCH IS A VERY DANGEROUS FALLACY OR DELUSION, ESPEC WHEN DEALING WID POWERFUL OR POTENT RANKS N-O-T IN THE KNOW.
Again, the US = POTUS Obama hasn't even started wid CHINA in East Asia + WESTPAC.
#3
In the military, and in aircraft safety, every defeat or accident is studied, so that it can be avoided in the future. The army conducts courts martial to do this. If you fail, you are replaced.
Somehow, this is not true in the State Department. The abject failure of Libyan policy has led to no public discussion, and no change of policy or of leadership, or even public acknowledgement of failure. This is a prescription for disaster.
#1
Long time past when the last mid-century 'agreement' that gave fixed wings pretty much in total to the AF comes to end. The flight profiles and missions of a next gen attack helicopter vs an A-10 will not justify the costs and expenses of duplicating these things just because the AF doesn't really want to play ground support. If the Marines can have their own dedicated air wing, so can the Army.
[DAWN] WHEN tradition militates against the well-being of individuals, and runs counter to advances in scientific knowledge, it is time to let it go. Too often though, tradition has many impassioned, blinkered defenders reluctant to discard time-honoured rituals and that is when the government can play an important role by legislating on the issue. Thus on Wednesday, the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... government declared its intention to discuss amendments to the family law and raise the minimum age for girls from 16 to 18 years, as well as penalise the non-registration of marriage with a fine of Rs50,000 and make it mandatory for the bride and groom to produce CNICs to enter into a nuptial contract.
In most of Pakistain, the burden of being born female -- with disadvantages of access to healthcare and education -- is often compounded by the cross of early marriage. In a patriarchal and stultifying social sphere that places a high premium on a female's child-bearing role, millions of girls become wives and mothers before they are mentally or physically capable of the attendant challenges. There are a number of health risks incurred by females thrust into such early unions, and resulting early motherhood, including obstetric fistula, death in childbirth and cervical cancer. According to recent studies cited in a report in this paper, the latter is the second most common cancer afflicting Pak women, claiming a shocking 20 lives every single day. The country ranks seventh among countries with the highest rates of cervical cancer. There is, therefore, more than one good reason to welcome the Punjab government's initiative to review laws that impact girls and women in far-reaching ways. The precedent was set by the Sindh Assembly in April last year when it passed the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, thereby making marriage below the age of 18 a punishable offence. Although changing hidebound attitudes takes time, at least there is now a legal framework to shore up and reinforce the effort. It would behove other provinces to follow suit.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[11131 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
[NATION.PK] The violent arbiters of what can and cannot be said are lowering their targets on anyone, and not only those who are in the public eye. From poor farm workers like Asia Bibi, to world renowned writers such as Naguib Mahfouz, to theologians such as Mahmoud Mohammed Taha and Nasr Abu Zayd, to dozens of known and unknown journalists imprisoned for challenging the wrong people, to social media users calling for reform in countries as far apart as Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and Indonesia ‐ no one is too well-known or too insignificant to be punished.
Neither does this trend limit itself to Moslem-majority countries, as globalization ensures the rapid spread of ideas which are now dependent on nothing more than an internet connection. In the west, radical Islamists and their politically active and well funded conservative supporters have begun to advocate for criminalization of blasphemy through the expansion of existing hate-speech laws. In the U.K., Moslem groups were the only religious minority that advocated for the resuscitation (and expansion) of long-unused blasphemy laws.
At the global level, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is trying to criminalize any affront through pushing for legislation that prohibits the defamation of religion. But the flowering culture of self-censorship, the roots of which can be traced back to the the accompanying violence of the Rushdie Affair, is increasingly doing their work for them.
The BBC will cancel documentary movie screenings because of security threats. British museums will hide their collections containing artistic images of the Prophet Mohammad made by Moslems through the ages. Atheist societies are censored on British university campuses. A political candidate, himself of Moslem background, receives death threats because he tweeted a picture of stick figures saying hi to each other ‐ a picture which the BBC refused to show. A campaign is underway to prohibit him from running for office.
These are but a small fraction of the latest examples of the changing tides. When Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... cartoonists are accused of provocation, people forget that their publications were a response to these incremental changes of the last two decades. And the fact that these developments are increasingly being forced, not through dialogue and discussion, but violence and intimidation, is likewise ignored.
In the wake of the murders, numerous religious leaders ‐ from Pope Francis to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church ‐ have condemned religious satire as unpardonable provocation. Politicians of the world have listened closely to these calls for sensitivity to religion. And while authoritarian regimes are always happy to use the barrel of a gun in order to suppress legitimate dissent, artistic expression, and political opposition, pluralistic democracies increasingly appear to have stepped on the same path.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[11127 views]
Top|| File under: Salafists
[NATION.PK] Every religious war that has ever been waged has eventually been linked to causes other than religion. The crusades, for example, took place in the name of religion, yet their causes range from economic to political to social factors. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire, done in the name of religion, was nothing but the desire for an empire to grow in power and size. The spread of Islam to the subcontinent didn't take place to please God; it took place to please men who wished to become powerful and feared.
It should also be kept in mind that no expansion takes place peacefully. Moslems conveniently claim that Islamic expansion has been the most peaceful, that not one individual was killed during the conquest of Mecca. However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... we fail to understand that the conquest of Mecca was only a part of the beginning of Islamic history. Between then and now, there is a vast stretch of time that is full of examples of how not all Islamic 'conquests' have been peaceful.
How can wars waged in the name of Islam, from that time till modern day, be ignored? How can the lives lost in protecting and expanding the Ottoman Empire be forgotten? How can we choose to ignore the violence that came with Islam when it was brought to the subcontinent? While we glorify the individuals who brought Islam to the subcontinent, we fail to acknowledge the fact that it was our ancestors who were ruthlessly murdered on their own land by individual who claimed to be bringing God's message to the people of the subcontinent.
Of course, at present, the entire world is being affected by a religious war; the desire that has driven certain groups to terrorize the whole world in the name of religion. At this point, it is of paramount importance that we understand the immense need for a moderate version of Islam to be promoted. Islam, being the last Abrahamic Faith, should bring about an end to the violence that has gone alongside religion for centuries. Once this happens, Moslems all over the world will be right in saying that Islam is a religion of peace. At present, however, it only seems like history is repeating itself.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2015 00:00 ||
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[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Salafists
#1
Isn't where a belief that you have to bury a vampire at crossroads to prevent it from raising again?
#2
Kinda glosses over the fact that the Crusades were a response to the violent subjugation of Christian territory and seems a little overly sanguine about the existence, not to say dominance of "Moderate Islam".
That said it at least admits that this is all being done in the name of Islam and is a religious war.
#4
If you want lasting peace in Mindanao, get rid of all the Muslims.
Proof: In Mindanao much of the fighting is between clans. There are many feuds between Muslim and Christian clans. There are also feuds between Muslim clans. There are no feuds between Christian clans on Mindanao.
I rest my case.
Posted by: frozen al ||
01/30/2015 14:33 Comments ||
Top||
#5
There are 4 Muslim groups that fight against the government, the Christians and the communists. Then there is the NPA, the Chinese communists. After that there are the Moro's. No amount of will or desire will bring peace to this island.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/30/2015 14:36 Comments ||
Top||
#6
ION TOPIX > ISLAMIC STATE LAUNCHES MULTIPLE ATTACKS IN IRAQ AND EGYPT.
* FREEREPUBLIC, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD DECLARES OPEN JIHAD [to be "long-n-uncompromising"] IN EGYPT AFTER US STATE DEPT. MEETING.
ISIS link to deadly MILF-BIFF attack on PH SAF???
Is SecState Jaawhn "Presidential/2016?" Kerry's DeptState responsible for MORE Jihad + militancy in Egypt, NOT LESS???
h/t Instapundit
Once on a British talk show in the early 1970s, anticommunist actor John Wayne startled the host by acknowledging that there was indeed a Hollywood blacklist. Wayne's follow-up, however, made the host's jaw drop even farther; the blacklist, he stated, wasn't wielded by industry anticommunists against Communist Party members, but by the reverse. It was for this reason, Wayne stated, that he enlisted in the anticommunist fight in order to defend conservative screenwriters and get them back on the payroll. We know you have to be a "good person" = sharing 100% of their opinions to get any kind of a white collar job today. And not just in USA
#2
Blacklist has largely been a Freudian projection. Oh, and collaboration/cooperation/sympathy with the Soviet did occur. Like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, "I didn't do it".
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] WHEN tradition militates against the well-being of individuals, and runs counter to advances in scientific knowledge, it is time to let it go. Too often though, tradition has many impassioned, blinkered defenders reluctant to discard time-honoured rituals and that is when the government can play an important role by legislating on the issue. Thus on Wednesday, the
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
