Let's take stock of what's happening in the world right now. Syria is a disaster, and rapidly turning into a proxy war between the West and Iran/Russia/Hezbollah. The U.S. is establishing a military presence in Jordan to train Syrian rebels, and leaving a squadron of F-16s there to establish a partial no-fly zone.
Meantime, Russian President Putin takes every opportunity to tweak the U.S. Besides supplying Syria with missiles, he's keeping a stolen Super Bowl ring, and won't release NSA leaker Edward Snowden to U.S. authorities.
The Chinese are pissed too, because the White House went after Snowden in Hong Kong.
And let's not forget Iran, all this stalling on nuclear talks has given them more than enough time to build a bomb or two, and Pakistan (already nuclear armed) is about to fall into the abyss of anarchy.
And what does President Obama want to do - he talks to Putin about nuclear disarmament. Mutual Assured Distruction (Or MAD as its called) has been the only thing to keep the peace for the last 60 years or so - can you imagine how many times we would have fought the Russians or Chinese if the bomb wasn't around? Nuclear weapons are the only thing keeping the U.S. and Russia from going to war right now. So what if Iran or some other tin-horn republics get the bomb, we have enough to flatten them all so using them against us would be suicide.
My advice, don't eliminate nuclear weapons unless you want another world war. I would rather the Cold War return.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
Heating Up
I give this whole Middle-East thing a 9.8 on my sphincter scale - U.S. keeping planes, missiles and troops in Jordan to establish a Syrian rebel training base - the Russians sending more missiles to aid Syria - and more troops from Hezbollah and Iran joining the fight? Somebody better put the brakes on, and fast.
Assad Warns Against Arming Rebels, Denies Chemical Weapons Use
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned that Europe will “pay the price” for arming rebels trying to topple him and rejected accusations that he’s deployed chemical weapons against them as baseless.
In an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in Damascus, Assad warned that European nations seeking to send weapons to rebels will only export “terrorists” back to Europe. He also said the U.S., U.K. and France hadn’t substantiated their chemical weapons allegations.
“If Paris, London and Washington had a single piece of evidence for their claims, they would have produced it for the world public,” Assad told FAZ. An image on the Syrian president’s Facebook page showed an
FAZ cover and a photo of Assad sitting with a reporter from the newspaper.
Backed by Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah and aid from Iran and Russia, Assad’s forces have shifted the momentum in Syria’s civil war with an offensive against the rebels. He granted the interview after President
Barack Obama, accusing Assad of crossing a “red line” by using chemical weapons, last week ratcheted up U.S. support for the rebels with a decision to send them light arms.
Assad said using chemical weapons would be “illogical” if conventional weapons could be deployed -- and added that Syria has never confirmed or denied possessing chemical arms.
Instead, he accused rebel militia of using such weapons and said France and the U.K. had blocked a United Nations measure to investigate such a deployment in Aleppo.
Lies
“Everything that’s been said about the use of chemical weapons is a continuation of lies against Syria,” Assad told FAZ. “It’s the attempt to justify more military intervention.”
The Syrian leader also singled out the French and British governments, which spearheaded an end to the European Union’s weapons embargo last month, for wanting to ship weapons that he said will ultimately end up in the hands of “terrorists.”
“Terrorism means chaos here; chaos leads to poverty and poverty means that Europe will lose a significant market,” Assad said. “The second consequence would be the direct export of terrorism to Europe” as refugees leave the country.
Group of Eight leaders meeting today in Northern Ireland take up the Syria issue, as Obama sounds out Western allies on how far to go to intervene in Syria’s conflict.
While British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande support Western action in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin is backing Assad.
Russian Weapons
“Russia supplies arms to the legitimate government of Syria according to international law,” Putin said yesterday in London after meeting with Cameron. “We breach nothing. And we call on our partners to act the same way.”
The Syrian army is mounting an offensive to retake Aleppo, the nation’s commercial center and largest city.
The Syrian rebels’ Supreme Military Command, headed by Major General Salim Idris, has pleaded for heavy arms that go beyond the light weapons such as machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades that the
U.S. is preparing to furnish.
Assad told the German newspaper he has no doubt that rebels “will be completely eliminated from our territory,” though said he was still open for political talks.
In Saudi Arabia, the Cabinet called on Islamic nations today to stand against supplying Syria’s “illegitimate regime” with weapons, ammunition and individuals “so that it would not be able to continue its aggression,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
Assad Warns Against Arming Rebels, Denies Chemical Weapons Use
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-06-17/assad-warns-against-arming-rebels-denies-chemical-weapons-use
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned that Europe will “pay the price” for arming rebels trying to topple him and rejected accusations that he’s deployed chemical weapons against them as baseless.
In an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in Damascus, Assad warned that European nations seeking to send weapons to rebels will only export “terrorists” back to Europe. He also said the U.S., U.K. and France hadn’t substantiated their chemical weapons allegations.
“If Paris, London and Washington had a single piece of evidence for their claims, they would have produced it for the world public,” Assad told FAZ. An image on the Syrian president’s Facebook page showed an
FAZ cover and a photo of Assad sitting with a reporter from the newspaper.
Backed by Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah and aid from Iran and Russia, Assad’s forces have shifted the momentum in Syria’s civil war with an offensive against the rebels. He granted the interview after President
Barack Obama, accusing Assad of crossing a “red line” by using chemical weapons, last week ratcheted up U.S. support for the rebels with a decision to send them light arms.
Assad said using chemical weapons would be “illogical” if conventional weapons could be deployed -- and added that Syria has never confirmed or denied possessing chemical arms.
Instead, he accused rebel militia of using such weapons and said France and the U.K. had blocked a United Nations measure to investigate such a deployment in Aleppo.
Lies
“Everything that’s been said about the use of chemical weapons is a continuation of lies against Syria,” Assad told FAZ. “It’s the attempt to justify more military intervention.”
The Syrian leader also singled out the French and British governments, which spearheaded an end to the European Union’s weapons embargo last month, for wanting to ship weapons that he said will ultimately end up in the hands of “terrorists.”
“Terrorism means chaos here; chaos leads to poverty and poverty means that Europe will lose a significant market,” Assad said. “The second consequence would be the direct export of terrorism to Europe” as refugees leave the country.
Group of Eight leaders meeting today in Northern Ireland take up the Syria issue, as Obama sounds out Western allies on how far to go to intervene in Syria’s conflict.
While British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande support Western action in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin is backing Assad.
Russian Weapons
“Russia supplies arms to the legitimate government of Syria according to international law,” Putin said yesterday in London after meeting with Cameron. “We breach nothing. And we call on our partners to act the same way.”
The Syrian army is mounting an offensive to retake Aleppo, the nation’s commercial center and largest city.
The Syrian rebels’ Supreme Military Command, headed by Major General Salim Idris, has pleaded for heavy arms that go beyond the light weapons such as machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades that the
U.S. is preparing to furnish.
Assad told the German newspaper he has no doubt that rebels “will be completely eliminated from our territory,” though said he was still open for political talks.
In Saudi Arabia, the Cabinet called on Islamic nations today to stand against supplying Syria’s “illegitimate regime” with weapons, ammunition and individuals “so that it would not be able to continue its aggression,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
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