Former Syrian vice president Abdelhalim Khaddam passed away in Paris, at 88. I guess he never finished those memoirs he claimed to be writing, which is a real shame. https://t.co/TXzjQEkxVo
🇪🇺🇺🇳 Tomorrow the EU operation "Irini" (Peace) will start to enforce UN weapons embargo on Libya. HQ of the operation will be in 🇮🇹 Italy, and commander will be the 🇮🇹 Italian Navy Admiral Fabio Agostini. 🇫🇷🇮🇹🇪🇸 France, Italy & Spain will be the main asset contributors. pic.twitter.com/XkAz1E7KGP
— Marco Florian 🇮🇹🇺🇸🇪🇺🇨🇾🇬🇷🇮🇱🇪🇬 (@MarcoFlorianMED) March 31, 2020
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
Are they going to shoot down the Turkish 'Supply Aircraft'?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/01/2020 13:38 Comments ||
Top||
The Turkish Medical Association has said there were many mistakes in Ankara’s “inadequate” response to the pandemic, saying borders had been left open too long and that quarantine had not been imposed on most Turks returning from abroad.https://t.co/s2wLAOGflb
[MEMRI.ORG] In Turkey's Yeni Şafak daily, which is a mouthpiece of Turkey's ruling AKP, the paper's editor-in-chief İbrahim Karagül described what he saw as the collapse of the West and the rise of countries, including Turkey, after the global spread of the Coronavirus.
"Turkey is one of the world's new superpowers.
"We must note that as of now, Turkey is conducting more successful coordination, a more effective fight than most of the world's central powers. The state, central power, leadership, institutions, public formations, and citizens are handling matters in great harmony. If there are going to be any countries to rise post-corona – and there will be – Turkey is going to be one of them.
"The coronavirus epidemic will be overcome. Even if new epidemics follow, they too will be overcome. However, the establishment of a new world cannot be postponed..."
"EVERYTHING PRODUCED AND IMPOSED TO THE WORLD BY THE WEST IN THE FORM OF A GLOBAL DISCOURSE AND ORDER IS COMING TO AN END"
"It seems that everything produced and imposed to the world by the West in the form of a global discourse and order is coming to an end. The West has already lost its 'central' power. The standards of value may change radically. Crazy ideologies may emerge. The notion of power could be redefined. West's financial system, political system, security theories collapsed. New political orders will be established. New superpowers will emerge. The West's financial system is collapsing. Its political system and discourse are collapsing. Its security theories are collapsing. Its social theories are collapsing. Humanity no longer has any expectation of them.
"Centuries-old history has ended. History has turned over a new leaf. A new world is being established. As a matter of fact, this is nothing like the post-world war periods. It looks like a much more solid, much more radical change.
"New political orders will be established. New economic models will be developed. New lines of businesses, new consumption habits will begin. New political movements, new live models will develop. New superpowers will emerge. New discourses and models will develop with respect to the management of resources, markets and masses..."
"THE NATIONS CONTROLLING THE WORLD MAY COLLAPSE WHILE NEW ONES MAY TAKE TO THE STAGE"
"After geographical discoveries, this is the first time, ever since the start of colonialism that the world is undergoing such a power shift, power void, power consumption. Countries may change places. Nations may change places. Massive population movements are likely. Countries with weak power domains, weak state coordination may collapse.
"The West may become the East and the East may become the West. The North may transform into the South and the South into the North. The nations controlling the world may collapse while new ones may take to the stage. The perceptions of state and homeland may change. Political language and forms of political organization may change."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
He is correct in this:
"It seems that everything produced and imposed to the world by the West in the form of a global discourse and order is coming to an end.
The West has been destroyed from the interior by Marxists. Who is the Marxist center of the world today? USA and its Universities, its Media...
#3
Turkey has grown with western technology transfer and Arab money. Both are at an end as the Turks have pissed off both. Back to being the Sick Man of Eurasia, in the near future, with a Kurdish majority. Erodogan's nightmare come true.
Posted by: Ulaviling Dark Lord of the French1268 ||
04/01/2020 2:13 Comments ||
Top||
No that was in 60'70's. Ideological Marxist production today is in US and other Anglo-saxon countries. PC and extension of Marxist exploited/exploiters game was started/created in US not Continental Europe.
#8
I hate how people misuse the term "superpower". Turkey is a regional power at best, and barely became a great power.
We can only hope that the "world order" comes to an end. It has been an utter disaster for the American people. We have been thrown out of work and forced to fight for this meaningless concept. Our people are killed and horribly maimed for life, either physically or mentally. And for what? For the benefit of hostile countries who hate us?
What business is it of ours if the Grand Turk wants to waste blood and treasure in Syria? Who cares? Better than us doing it.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
04/01/2020 7:05 Comments ||
Top||
Posted by: Chris ||
04/01/2020 18:01 Comments ||
Top||
#20
It has to be read from their perspective. Cheeky inanity that it is, it's also not without import for us.
Basically, they're implying that the blatant aggression and delinquent abandon that we see in display in islamic nations today gives a leg up against convention bound, legalist military superpowers. These militaries cannot use their power even after proliferating trillions worth of equipment and gigatons of death, so stuck are they in the struggle to maintain ideological consistency among themselves and in their domestic spheres.
In such a world, no one has to be a super power to take even the mighty US of A for a ride. Being a shameless islamic state with effective representation in various pressure groups on American campuses will do. So essentially, they've not attained 'super' status. It's the countries that once acted as cops of the world that have made themselves powerless.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Tablighi Jamaat
#1
9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui was a Tablighi Jamaat member, as was Kafeel Ahmed, who died in the Glasgow Airport Attack, as were the founders of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, who hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 in 1999. Definately not Hasidic Jewish people.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/01/2020 17:00 Comments ||
Top||
[idrw.org] The Ministry of Defence of Serbia sold 282 T-55 tanks to Pakistan Army, which were from the arsenal marked as an obsolete equipment, Serbian Daily ‘Blic’ reported. The deal was agreed at the Arms Fair in Belgrade, and the contract of purchase, worth tens of millions of dollars, will be signed next week. A source from the Army told the daily that this contract is very important for the Serbian Army. In the business, these are known as "targets."
“The tanks, which had to be sold as obsolete equipment, will be modernized and sold to Pakistanis. Modernization will increase T-55 value many times. The deal was made in great secrecy because it is a contract worth tens of millions of dollars. An agreement in principle was reached in person with Pakistani Minister of Defense Industry,” said the source.
‘Blic’ findings were indirectly confirmed by the Chief of the Defence Technology in the Ministry of Defence, Major General Bojan Zrnic.
“It is true that there was an agreement in principle for the sale of 282 tanks from the arsenal of retired and obsolete military equipment, but I do not want to talk about with which country and the army this deal was made. It would not be appropriate because the contract has not been signed. What can I say is that the offer is extremely favorable for the Army of Serbia as the tanks will not be sold in its current state, they will be modernized first. This task will be entrusted to our defense industry,” says General Zrnic.
I thought Pakistan made their own main battle tank from a Chinese design?
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/01/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
These are very cramped vehicles. (I didn't fit, and didn't want to be cut out if I somehow slipped in.) Maybe if they were dug in in revetments and allowed to fire and displace, they might have some function. Mobil-ish bunkers. Pakistan was using T-55's, M48's and some chicom tank with stadia sights in mixed armor brigades when I was there. The hope was that something would get to the battlefield.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/01/2020 0:49 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Oh, they also should be somewhat effective against unarmed civilians so long as the buggers don't flank the tanks.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/01/2020 0:54 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Good for a siege line in high altitude India borderlands?
#4
Soviets chose short men for their panzer battalions as it was cheaper to make smaller tanks. Always the men who must adapt to the machine, rather than the other way around.
Sad to see that concept catching on in our society.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
04/01/2020 7:06 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Soviet Panzers *snort*
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2020 7:56 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"Pakistan has received the first batch comprising of 100 modernized T-55 tanks from Serbia which further consolidates the former’s defensive capabilities.
According to a Serbian defense news portal, Borbeni Effektivi, Serbia has dispatched the first 100 of 282 up to date T-55 tanks to Pakistan."
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/01/2020 8:52 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Pakistan assembles stuff made in China. They just paint it green and name it after some Islamic invader. They need to buy the Chinese parts and these T-55s are much cheaper. I can just imagine the Indian armored divisions shivering in fear at the mighty T-55s coming their way.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/01/2020 8:56 Comments ||
Top||
#8
The problem with 'large' concentrations of tanks is, you have to get them to the fight. That means HETS (heavy equipment transports), or rail. Also needed are shi*loads of POL (fuel) and maintenance people. All of this leaves a huge signature that can easily be seen by airborne platforms. If your adversary is monitoring his imagery. Your goose is cooked.
#9
The tanks, which had to be sold as obsolete equipment, will be modernized and sold to Pakistanis. Modernization will increase T-55 value many times.
Yeah, instead of an old piece of crap that explodes it will be a not as old piece of crap that burns instead of explodes!
#11
All were up to the T-80s. They like to store ammunition in a ring around the turret. Hence you hit the ammo and the turret does a "pop goes the weasel"
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/01/2020 17:32 Comments ||
Top||
#13
The deal was actually finalized five years ago, at the Belgrade Arms fair, PARTNER (2015). Other armaments and vehicles are also on the receipts. A $ 35 million deal, from which moolah went to several middlemen from Islamabad to Belgrade. And certain pols now living in Pak-Punjab grew a little richer.
Because there were continuous efforts to prevent contemporary and advanced tech transfers into Pak by other nations, the juicier deals never fell through. But the Def Min of Pak, Khwaja Asif and his masters still had to make money. So they spun a yarn about needing old tanks and howitzers for beating back the taliban.
Interestingly, it was believed at the time, some of these tanks would end up in taliban hands.
Who even reported this nonexistent attack? And why + how would a Patriot PAC-3 battery designed to engage tactical ballistic missiles launch to intercept some incoming tiny 107mm rockets? It wouldn’t happen (that’s the job of C-RAM’s). https://t.co/IKDw8PIRdk
[PJ] Israel has been providing the Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza with crucial aid against the coronavirus‐not simply out of love and charity, but because populations in such close proximity to each other have a mutual interest in tackling the problem. Israel fears the security implications of a meltdown of Palestinian society in either or both enclaves, which could result in massive rocket fire or large numbers of desperate people storming Israel’s borders.
For now, the aid and cooperation have prompted even the United Nations, known for obsessive and severely disproportionate criticism of Israel, to sing the praises of the Jewish state.
The Palestine branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs‐not considered one of Israel’s greatest fans‐reported that the Israeli and Palestinian Authority ministries of health, along with Israel’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), have been meeting regularly.
[IsraelTimes] European nations have delivered medical goods to Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... in the first transaction under the Instex mechanism set up to evade American sanctions on Tehran, the German foreign ministry says.
"La Belle France, Germany and the United Kingdom confirm that Instex has successfully concluded its first transaction, facilitating the export of medical goods from Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... to Iran. These goods are now in Iran," the ministry says in a statement.
The first successful transaction comes over a year after Britannia, La Belle France and Germany announced the creation of Instex, months that have been marked by Iranian chafing against European delay.
"Now the first transaction is complete, Instex and its Iranian counterpart STFI will work on more transactions and enhancing the mechanism," Berlin says.
Britannia, La Belle France and Germany were among a list of countries that Iran reported receiving medical aid from earlier this month as it battles a serious outbreak of the novel coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... .
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/01/2020 03:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
So, they didn't have medical supplies for Italy, but they have them for Iran?
#2
Ladies and gentlemen, our "staunch allies" in Europe.
Supposedly, the ruinous cost of defending Europe gives us a say in their foreign relations. Obviously that's a lie. So what are we getting for our profligate spending? Nothing. Just a logistics hub that enables endless wars in the Middle East for the profit of our military-industrial complex.
USA out of NATO. Cut those bastards off at the knees. Put Lockheed Martin and all the others in bankruptcy instead of our small businesses. America first!
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
04/01/2020 6:52 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Looks like the Foreigner office needs a thorough cull of chaff.
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.
[MEMRI.ORG] In Turkey's Yeni Şafak daily, which is a mouthpiece of Turkey's ruling AKP, the paper's editor-in-chief İbrahim Karagül described what he saw as the collapse of the West and the rise of countries, including Turkey, after the global spread of the Coronavirus.
[PJ] Israel has been providing the Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza with crucial aid against the coronavirus‐not simply out of love and charity, but because populations in such close proximity to each other have a mutual interest in tackling the problem. Israel fears the security implications of a meltdown of Palestinian society in either or both enclaves, which could result in massive rocket fire or large numbers of desperate people storming Israel’s borders.
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
