Russia's Patience Is 'Wearing Thin' As U.S. Attempts To Subdue Russia

Russia's Patience Is Wearing Thin

Having lived in the former USSR before immigrating to the US, Dmitry Orlov has an invaluable perspective on both the US and Russian perspectives, as well as Ukraine.

With the western propaganda flying thick and heavy, it's more important than ever to cut through the chaff and learn what we can about the most important geopolitical realignment (and renewed tensions) in recent memory.

Well, look, Russia is a place that's extremely dynamic as changing response to challenging environment, to changed environment, very popular throughout the world, at peace with most of the world, even with nations that are at war with each other, both sides will still talk to Russia and have friendly relations. Russia has a splendid relationship with both Israel and Iran for instance.

The United States is a nation that can't get anything together, can't get anything on, not education, not healthcare, nothing. It's basically sinking into a cesspool of its own making it can't respond at all. And now, it is basically being shown up to be quite incompetent in playing this international game. Now, what happens if you can't play a game by the rules is you're penalized and you forfeit the game. So, either the US leadership will learn how to play by the rules or they forfeit. I see those are as the only two real outcomes.

There's a difference to how the Russians approach the world and how the Americans approach the world. So, for instance, Americans like to threaten. If you don't do this, then we will do X, Y and Z. That's a typical American behavior.

That's not something that the Russians would ever do because they don't threaten, they just act because if you threaten, then you take away the element of surprise which is very important. The other thing is Americans refuse to talk to their enemies, they won't negotiate with terrorists, they won't do X, Y and Z and can't be reasoned with at all. You can just listen to them and do what they say or they'll bomb you whereas the Russians always talk to their enemies. Russia keeps the channels of communication open.

And the other thing is that all of this endless trash talking is very detrimental to the business of democracy and there's been a constant stream of basically garbage emanating from the west, some of it social media, some of it through the old fashioned press. But, just basically all kinds of lies and disinformation and slander, which makes the tedious business of diplomacy establishing various links at various levels very difficult, if not impossible. So there's just this incredible level of disgust with their, as they say, partners in the west in Moscow and the result is they're not really eager to talk anymore. They're not very interested in communicating. They're far more interested in acting. So, what we'll probably see is a constant stream of surprises coming from Russia that will be completely unannounced and not predicted by anyone.

Click the play button below to listen to Chris' interview with Dmitry Orlov (51m:10s):

Putin: 'U.S. Wants To Subdue Russia, But No One Did Or Ever Will'

The US has no plans to humiliate Russia, but instead wants to subdue it, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that no one had ever succeeded in doing so – and never will.

Speaking at a forum of the All-Russia Peoples' Front in Moscow on Tuesday, the Russian leader said that history was not about to change, and that no one would manage to suppress the country.

"Throughout history no one has ever managed to do so toward Russia – and no one ever will," Putin said.

Responding to a question about whether America was trying to humiliate Russia, Putin disagreed, saying that the US wanted "to solve their problems at our expense."

The Russian leader said the US had managed to subordinate its allies to its influence – with such countries "trying to protect foreign national interests on obscure conditions and perspectives."

One of the means of changing the balance of power in the world to eventually subdue Russia was NATO’s gradual approach to its borders, which made Russia “nervous”, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told BBC.

Russia needs a “100% guarantee that no-one would think about Ukraine joining NATO,” Peskov added.

Despite the focus on the world economy, the crisis in Ukraine was one of the hottest topics at the G20. Talking about the summit's results at a press conference, US President Barack Obama did not announce any significant changes in his country's approach to Russia.

"We would prefer a Russia that is fully integrated with the global economy," the US president told a news conference, adding that his country was "also very firm on the need to uphold core international principles."

Before leaving Brisbane, Putin said that a solution to the crisis in Eastern Ukraine was possible. "Today the situation [in Ukraine] in my view has good chances for resolution, no matter how strange it may sound," he said, as quoted by Reuters.

The Russian leader also said he was satisfied with both the results and atmosphere of the meetings.

Australian authorities created an exceptionally friendly atmosphere for discussing solutions to economic challenges at the G20 summit in Brisbane, the Russian president said, dispelling rumors there were any confrontations.

Though many media outlets speculated that Putin had left the summit early, skipping a Sunday working breakfast because of an icy welcome at the G20, the Russian leader reiterated on Tuesday that practically all work had been finished by that time. “I addressed all sessions,” Putin said, adding: “Our stance was heard.”

Another Heatwave Hits Arctic

As parts of Canada, Greenland and Russia are hit by -40 degrees temperatures (anomalies at the bottom end of the scale), parts of the Arctic are experiencing temperatures above freezing (anomalies at the top end of the scale), as illustrated by the image below.

[ click on image to enlarge ]

Temperatures in the Arctic are much higher than they used to be and this situation further accelerates warming in the Arctic, due to a number of feedbacks.

One such feedbacks has been coined the ‘open doors feedback’. Indeed, the situation is much like leaving the fridge door open. This allows cold air to more easily move out of the fridge, i.e. the Arctic, resulting in the cold temperatures over North America that have received extensive news coverage in the media. At the same time, warm air can move more easily into the fridge, i.e. the Arctic, and this is one of the reasons why the Arctic is hit by temperatures that are so much higher than what used to be normal.

The situation has been described in a number of earlier posts such as this one, as well in a recent interview with Jennifer Francis. As the Arctic warms more rapidly than the rest of the world, there's less temperature difference between the Arctic and the equator, resulting in the jet stream going around the globe at a lower speed with more elongated loops.

The left chart on above image shows such an elongated loop going north along the east coast of Greenland, then bending before Scandinavia and moving over the north of Greenland, then going around the North Pole and moving back to Scandinavia. This loop is not very visible on the chart, because the jet stream moves faster along straight tracks, and this chart highlights wind speed more than it highlights the path of the jet stream. Yet, the shape of this loop is very important, as it traps warmer air north of Greenland.

BTW, a weaker jet stream also elevates the chance of heat waves elsewhere, which can indirectly warm up the Arctic. Examples of this are heat waves over the Gulf Stream as it crosses the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in warmer water being carried into the Arctic Ocean, and heat waves over Siberia and North America, resulting in warming up of rivers that end in the Arctic Ocean.

Anyway, to get back to the current heatwave, there are a number of reasons why temperatures in the Arctic are so high at the moment. One of the biggest reasons is ocean heat, which has reached very high levels, especially in the North Atlantic, while the Gulf Stream keeps transporting warmer water from the North Atlantic into the Arctic Ocean (i.e. water that is warmer than the water in the Arctic Ocean). This warms up the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, resulting in methane erupting from the seafloor, with a strong immediate local warming impact in the Arctic, thus further accelerating warming in the Arctic in another one of these self-reinforcing feedback loops, as pictured in the image below.

Further feedbacks that accelerate warming in the Arctic are discussed at the feedbacks page.

Without effective and comprehensive action, these feedbacks threaten to lead to runaway warming, i.e. abrupt climate change causing mass death and destruction, and resulting in extinction at massive scale, as depicted in the image below and as described in this earlier post.

In conclusion, the situation is dire and calls for comprehensive and effective action, as discussed at the Climate Plan blog.

Post by Sam Carana.

WNU Editor

It has been a rough few weeks (work, travel, health, etc.), so I going to hang out with friends and family for the rest of the day. Blogging will return tomorrow morning.

Murphy's Laws Of Combat

Hat Tip: Theo Spark

[MV] INFINITE F – ‘My Heart Is Beating’

What KPOP -

Sub unit terbaru dari INFINITE yang terdiri dari L, Sungjong dan Sungyeol, merilis video klip untuk ‘My Heart Is Beating’.

Meskipun sebelumnya INFINITE F merilis lagu ini di Jepang, rilisan Korea kali ini menampilkan video klip yang berbeda. Selamat menyaksikan!

shared from allkpop

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A Short Story On A Hypothetical Middle East Nuclear War

An interception by the Iron Dome anti-missile system is seen as rockets are launched from Gaza towards Israel before a 72-hour ceasefire was due to expire August 13, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Amir Cohen

How The Middle East’s First Nuclear War Started -- Mathew Burrows, Politico

The following is a fictional story by Mathew Burrows, who, for the past decade, has overseen the creation of the National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends Report—an intelligence-based futurist guide that has become essential reading for the White House as well as the Departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security.

As the United States enters the final hours of nuclear negotiations with Iran this weekend, it is worth considering the possible paths forward depending on the outcome of the Geneva meetings. You never know—this story could already be happening.

***

Jamil Khoury woke at night in a cold sweat, shaken by the magnitude of what he had done. He had always considered himself a peace-loving man—having grown up in Lebanon, he knew what war could do to a country. And now it looked as if he would be responsible for war on a scale no one had ever seen.

He sat for a while in silence watching the sun creep in through the shutters until his phone rang. He answered, and after a brief call, resolved to get the next flight from Beirut to New York. If he could just talk to Lars, Lars might be able to help.

**

Read more ....

My Comment: A short story on a hypothetical Middle East nuclear war. Let us hope that it remains like that .... a story of fiction.

Setelah Kematian Ayahnya, Mina AOA Menerima Komentar Kasar di Dunia Online

What KPOP -

Sebelumnya, telah diberitakan bahwa ayah Mina AOA telah meninggal dunia akibat penyakit kanker. Namun, setelah muncul berita itu, banyak komentar-komentar kasar yang ditunjukan kepada Mina melalui dunia online.

Pada tanggal 29 November, Mr. Kwon (Ayah Mina) telah meninggal dunia setelah berjuang melawan kanker selama tiga bulan. Namun, sejak kematiannya, mulai muncul berbagai komentar kasar seperti, “Apakah ayahmu akan hidup kembali jika kau menghentikan jadwal kegiatanmu? Bahkan kau tidak memiliki mentalitas yang diperlukan untuk pekerjaan ini, jadi seharusnya kau menghentikan karir selebritimu,”, “Aku pikir dia adalah Minah Girls Day .. Aku tidak peduli dengan girl grup seperti AOA” dan lainnya.

Sementara itu, agensinya FNC Entertainment mengungkapkan bahwa saat ini Mina sedang berada dalam penderitaan yang mendalam. Ia akan menghentikan kegiatannya untuk sementara waktu.

source : koreaboo

indotrans : wndwnrt

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A Conversation On What It Means To Kill In War

Troops are trained to kill, but not to deal with the consequences of killing.(Reuters/Andrew Burton)

It’s Time For An Honest Conversation About What It Means To Kill In War -- Phil Zabriskie, Quartz

Last week, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Congressional committee that his office was still considering whether or not the US should send ground troops to Iraq to fight ISIL (a.k.a. the Islamic State). Some in Congress and the military think the idea is past due, and that only American combat troops can neutralize the threat ISIL poses to Syria, Iraq, and beyond.
1

With Chuck Hagel’s resignation as defense secretary on Nov. 24—not to mention a move to slow the troop withdrawal in Afghanistan—a shift in policy may indeed be in the offing. But what everyone must understand is that if boots are put on the ground and a fighting war begins, American servicemen will not only likely be killed, but will also be killing.

That may sound obvious. Of course combat soldiers have to kill. And yet over the past year, as I’ve been reporting and writing about killing in combat—a project born from time spent covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and several other countries over the past decade—I’ve seen that this part of combat, obvious though it may be, remains one of the least discussed and most overlooked, despite the profound implications it has for all involved.

Read more ....

My Comment: A sobering essay on a topic that no one wants to discuss. Fortunately .... in my own case .... I cannot relate to it. I have never killed anyone .... and it is a track record that I am very proud to hold. Unfortunately .... my father did kill a great deal of people during the Second World War .... and while I know some of the details (bits and pieces of info accumulated over the years) .... I do know that his war experience gave him horrible nightmares for the rest of his life.

Pestilence: Ebola Update

For some reason, updates on Ebola are hard to find these days. 

Number Of Ebola Infections In West Africa Passes 16,000

The number of people with Ebola in west Africa has risen above 16,000, with the death toll from the outbreak reaching almost 7,000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.

The number of deaths is more than 1,000 higher than the figure issued by the WHO just two days ago, but it is thought to include deaths that have gone unreported in the weeks or months since the outbreak began. Most of the new deaths were recorded in Liberia.

The WHO has warned that its figures could be a significant underestimation of the number of infections and deaths. Data from the outbreak has been patchy and the totals often rise considerably when backlogs of information are cleared. The latest confirmed data shows that almost half those known to have been infected with Ebola have died.

Meanwhile, two children tested for Ebola after arriving in Britain from Africa are not infected, Public Health England confirmed on Saturday. It said the overall risk to the public of the virus continued to be “very low”.

The children, whose ages and names have not been released, underwent precautionary tests in Newcastle for both the virus and malaria.

The outbreak has been centred on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. They account for the vast majority of the cases reported to date, with about three dozen cases elsewhere.

Liberia has recorded the highest number of cases and deaths, but the rate of infection is slowing there. The disease is now spreading fastest in Sierra Leone.

Mali has started recording infections after sick people crossed over from neighbouring Guinea. It has reported two new cases this week

This outbreak has been the worst partly because it occurred in a highly mobile region, where Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone meet, and quickly spread to their respective capital cities.

Another UN agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, warned that families in the three countries were at risk of both malnutrition and under-nutrition.

Vincent Martin, of the FAO, said 70% of people interviewed in Sierra Leone had been eating only one meal a day since the outbreak, rather than two or three. Restrictions on movement had led to panic buying, food shortages and severe price hikes, the agency said.

The WHO said this week that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo had ended, as it did in Nigeria in late October.

Its guidelines state that a country can be declared free of the virus once 42 days have passed and no new cases have been detected. The 42 days represents twice the maximum incubation period for Ebola.

Scientists said on Thursday that progress towards creating an Ebola vaccine had been made. An experimental vaccine has triggered promising immune responses from 20 healthy volunteers in a preliminary trial, suggesting that it should protect against infection.

Trials of a device that can diagnose an Ebola infection within 15 minutes are about to start in Guinea. The test, which can analyse blood or saliva, is six times faster than those being used in west Africa.

Ukrainian Nationalists Want A Coup

Radical protesters (R) clash with Interior Ministry and law enforcement members on the Day of Ukrainian Cossacks, marked by activists and supporters of the All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda (Freedom) Party and far-right activists and nationalists to honour the role of the movement in the history of Ukraine, during a rally near the parliament building in Kiev, October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Ukraine Militias Warn of Anti-Kiev Coup -- Jamie Dettmer, Daily Beast

The men behind Ukraine’s nationalist militias are looking to replace the fumbling government in Kiev one way or another.

KIEV, Ukraine—The burly man with the close-cropped silver hair and his two companions ask not to be identified too closely when they talk to me in some dowdy offices near an ancient monastery overlooking the Dnieper River. They want to be described as “patriotic businessmen,” they say, and one of them, whom we’ll call Alexander, is a very, very rich patriotic businessman.

They have been funding Ukrainian self-defense militias formed in response to what they see as the ineffectiveness of the Ukraine Armed Forces in the face of pro-Moscow separatists and Russian troops in the country’s southeast. And they suggest something worse than incompetence is at work there. The word “betrayal” often plays on their lips. They predict the government of President Petro Poroshenko may not last another three months. “That’s optimistic,” says Alexander.

Alexander and his friends point to continued military hardware exports—sometimes transferred via Moscow-ally Belarus—sent from some of Ukraine’s 134 state-owned defense enterprises to Russia, which has long been the Ukraine arms industry’s biggest customer.

Read more ....

My Comment: The last thing that Ukraine needs right now is a coup .... especially from this group. Fortunately .... they have very little if any support among the general population. Unfortunately .... they are organized, many of them have guns, they have friends and allies in parliament, key positions in the cabinet, and I would say that they have some support from within President Poroshenko's office itself. And while I believe that these Ukrainian nationalists are not capable of launching a successful coup .... the situation in Ukraine is so fluid right now that I have learned that anything is possible 2, 3 or 6 months from now.

A Look At The Humanitarian Crisis In Eastern Ukraine

Donetsk Residents Struggle With Daily Life Amid Ukraine Conflict -- NBC

DONETSK, Ukraine — Among shattered windows and the sounds of fighting, Alina wondered how her house was still standing. Her neighborhood in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk had been shelled the night before.

"Without any warning," she recalled while standing amid broken glass. "It was a miracle that it didn't hit my house ... Everything is so unexpected."

The city has found itself at the heart of a months-long conflict between Ukraine government troops and pro-Russia rebels who want to declare their own state. According to the United Nations, the violence has killed more than 4,300 people and displaced one million others.

Read more ....

My Comment: Russia is sending in some assistance .... Russia Sends Aid Convoy to Rebels as Ukraine Marks Anniversary (Bloomberg) .... but it is not enough to meet the population's needs. And as for those who have left, life has been very difficult .... 'We have no homeland': Ukraine dissolves as exiles flee (Globe and Mail). More here .... Kiev charity offers a little warmth to families fleeing the east (AFP).

My aunt lives in Kharkiv (Ukraine's second largest city), and while she and her husband are determined to stay there, my cousins and their families made the decision a few months ago to leave to Russia. And while the fighting has not reached her part of Ukraine, tensions are very high between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian communities. The rest of my family lives in Kiev, south of Kiev, and near Odessa ..... they are going to stay .... but they have all noticed the massive influx of refugees, and while they feel sorry for them, the real big fear is that they will themselves become part of this refugee wave. I live in Montreal (Canada) .... I have offered to my family to come and stay here until the crisis is over, or to move into my condo in Moscow, which I only use when I visit there. But everyone has declined my offer .... so far.

The above video is from RT correspondent Maria Finoshina .... she started filming a report on refugees fleeing Lugansk and decided to help several people to evacuate in exchange for a chance to interview them.

What Happens To Former Russian Spies

Anna Chapman. Wired

Ex-Spy Anna Chapman, From Russia Unloved -- Anna Nemtsova, Saily Beast

With scarlet lips and chemical red hair, the erstwhile agent is still making headlines in the West. She’s put out a film exalting the virtues of the Russian army (even the units in Ukraine). But her audience in the Motherland is negligible.

MOSCOW—Every now and then I run into Anna Chapman at a nail salon called “Little Fingers” on Potapovsky Avenue in downtown Moscow. One would expect a red-haired, red-lipsticked celebrity-ex-spy, wearing expensive designer dresses that are tight enough to sculpt her curves in high relief, to attract attention. But here in the hip Clear Ponds neighborhood, where at any time of the day women are used to seeing and being seen to be cool, glamour is nothing special. It’s rare that another client would turn her head to look at Chapman, and besides, not many people in Moscow actually know who she is.

Most of the times I’ve seen Chapman, she has seemed upset or moody, locked in her own thoughts. Once I asked her if she'd like to be interviewed. She declined, barely looking up as she leafed through a fashion magazine. With a little grin she said she did not like to give interviews: “Why would I need it? My popularity rating is high enough, I don’t need more publicity.”

Read more ....

My Comment: Anna Nemtsova is right that former Russian spy Anna Chapman attracts far more attention from the West .... than from anyone in Russia.

Nuclear Missile Trains Are Making A Comeback In Russia

The last surviving RT-23 missile perched above its railway based launcher at the Central Museum of Railway Transport in St. Petersburg. George Shuklin / Wikicommons

Russia Looks to Revive Nuclear Missile Trains to Counter U.S. Attack Capability -- Moscow Times

Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces are considering bringing back iconic Soviet-era nuclear missile trains as Moscow pumps money into a complete overhaul its aging nuclear arsenal.

According to an unidentified source in the Russian military-industrial complex quoted by the TASS news agency on Thursday, the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology — makers of the Topol, Yars and Bulava missiles — is designing a next-generation missile launching train.

"While the decision to start manufacturing [missile trains] is still pending, the probability is high that it will happen," the source was quoted as saying, explaining that technical studies and cost estimates are still being conducted.

"In the best-case scenario, they will be deployed by the end of the decade, probably somewhere around 2019," he said.

Read more ....

My Comment: With news reports and developments like this one .... you have to wonder if the Cold War is making a comeback.

Russia Has Successfully Tested A New Submarine Based Bulava Intercontinental Missile

Night Set Alight As Russian Sub Test-Launches Bulava Missile -- RT

Russia’s second Borey-class nuclear submarine test-fired a strategic Bulava intercontinental missile. The night blast-off from a submerged boat was the first successful SLBM launch for the Aleksandr Nevsky.

The K-550 Aleksandr Nevsky is the second Borey-class submarine, the new generation of boats carrying Bulava nuclear missiles. It has undergone modifications based on trials of the head submarine of the class, the Yury Dolgoruky, so its capability to fire the designated weapon is of paramount interest to the Russian Navy.

The missile was fired from a submerged submarine on Saturday morning from the Barents Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported. The missile’s warheads reached the Kura test range in Kamchatka in the Far East.

Read more ....

More News On Russia Successfully Testing A New Submarine Based Bulava Intercontinental Missile

Bulava inter-continental ballistic missile test-launched from nuclear submarine in Barents Sea -- ITAR-TASS
Russia Test-Launches Bulava Sea-Based Ballistic Missile -- Sputnik
Russian submarine test-launches Bulava intercontinental missile -- Reuters
Russia Test-Fires New 'Bulava' Intercontinental Ballistic Missile -- AP
Russia Tests New Sub-Launched Missile -- VOA
Russian submarine tests new missile designed to carry nuclear warheads -- Washington Times

Kurds Accuse Turkey Of Supporting The Islamic State

Armed men, believed to be Kurdish fighters, run after an explosion during fighting against Islamic State militants at a location west of Kobani November 23, 2014 (Reuters / Osman Orsal)

ISIL Reportedly Attacks Syrian Town Kobane From Turkey -- Al Jazeera

Turkey denies attack came from its side of the border while Kurdish activist accuses Istanbul of cooperating with ISIL

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched an attack Saturday on the Syrian border town of Kobane from Turkey, a Kurdish official and activists said, though Turkey denied that the fighters had used its territory for the raid.

The assault began when a suicide bomber driving an armored vehicle detonated his explosives on the border crossing between Kobane and Turkey, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party.

At least 30 fighters have been confirmed as killed so far, said Rami Abdulrahman, the Observatory's director. Twenty-one of those were ISIL fighters, including the four suicide bombers. The rest were Kurdish forces.

Read more ....

More News On Kurdish Accusations That Turkey Is Supporting The Islamic State

Kurds blame Turkey as suicide bombers hit Kobani -- Reuters
ISIS attacks border town Kobani from Turkey -- CBC/AP
Isis launches attack on Kobani from inside Turkey for first time -- The Guardian
Jihadist suicide bombers hit Syria-Turkey border post -- AFP
ISIS attack on Kobani comes from Turkey – Kurds -- RT
Islamic State: Fighting intensifies in Syrian town of Kobane -- BBC
At least 30 fighters killed in Syrian city of Kobani -- CNN

The Air War Against The Islamic State Has Become A Mixture Of Tatics, Strategy, And Politics

Nov. 23, 2014: An explosion following an air strike is seen in Kobani, Syria, near the Turkish border. (REUTERS)

US Flies Roughly 85 Percent Of Airstrike Against Islamic State, In Complex Mix Of Tactics, Politics -- FOX News

The United States is conducting roughly 85 percent of the multi-national air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, according to the most recent Pentagon report.

U.S. fighter planes and drones have conducted 819 strikes, compared to 157 from the 10 other countries, states the detailed report obtained last week by FoxNews.com.

The U.S. began the strikes in Iraq on Aug. 8 and was joined roughly five weeks later by Australia, followed by France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. They joined as part of President Obama’s plan to have international support in the effort to stop the militant group’s foray into western Iraq and eastern Syria. Canada was the last to join, on Oct. 7, and the last to launch a strike.

France on Sept. 17 became the first Western county other than the U.S. to launch an air strike, destroying an Islamic State depot.

Read more ....

My Comment: 85% !?!?!?!?! My gut is telling me that almost all airstrikes are now coming from U.S. aircraft .... because if it was not the case .... the U.S. would be broadcasting it everywhere and repeating it in every press conference.

A Look At The Uneasy Relationship Exists Between President Obama And The Pentagon

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the Defense Strategic Review at the Pentagon in Washington January 5, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

WNU Editor: Presidents and the Pentagon usually have a different viewpoint on national security and defense related issues .... especially during times of war. President Obama has not been an exception to this rule .... but this AP article is a surprising and sobering analysis on the current relationship between the White House Obama and the Pentagon .... and it is a severe take. The link is here .... For Obama and the Pentagon, an uneasy relationship -- Julie Pace and Robert Burns (AP).

Iran Takes Yemen and Red Sea Waterway; Media Blackout Hides Strategic Power Play

Iran Just Took Over Yemen, Red Sea Waterway - Media Blackout Hides Strategic Power Play

[This is a very long article which is well worth reading. Below are just a few of the most germane quotes]

A power grab in Yemen brought Iran much closer to controlling this strategic Red sea waterway. Unlike the events surrounding the ISIS crisis in Northern Iraq and Syria, this major regional development which designates a significant success of Iranian imperial expansionism remains under total media blackout in the west.

It’s not clear if the blackout is meant to cover up the western failure or to enable Iran to accomplish its goals on behalf of the west without too much public attention. Reports on the events in Sana’a lean toward the later option: 

In recent months, Houthi “rebels” (Shiite Iranian proxies) took advantage of anti-government protests and sit-ins, triggered by rising fuel prices, to launch a full-scale bloody anti-government rebellion. This was the precise mode of operations throught the “Arab spring” which was a CIA operation. 

Weak government and an absence of security contributed to the Houthi territorial expansion; they currently enjoy total administrative control of Saada, Al-Jouf, Hajjah. And in September, they shocked the region by succeeding in taking over the Yemeni capital Sanaa, despite the government’s attempt to appease demonstrators with a variety of measures - ...the first step toward the creation of a Shiite state, supported by Tehran, in northern Yemen. For many predominately Sunni Arab countries, a militarized state would present an unacceptable threat in the region.

Iran’s ability to blackmail global economy on two strategic sea lanes – the Persian gulf and the Red sea (leading to the Suez canal) – are likely to have dire consequeces for regional and global stability, and draw counter measures from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel, all of whom are the immediate targets for this latest Iranian aggression which contiunes unabated by Obama and his Trilateral handlers.

A member of the Iranian parliament who is close to Khamenei declared, “Three Arab capitals (Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad) have already fallen into Iran’s hands and belong to the Iranian Islamic Revolution.” He suggested Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, is the fourth.

In September, Shia rebels took over the capital city of Sana’a and the Al-Hudaydah port on the Red Sea. Iran has long been trying to take over the sea lanes surrounding the Arab world. It commands the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and is now trying to seize the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Yemen’s geostrategic location at the entrance to the Red Sea and across from the Horn of Africa along with the inherent weakness of the central regime has made it an attractive target for subversion by external power centers.

Map of Yemen

Meanwhile, Iran will keep trying to augment its advantage over Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Arab world with its nuclear program, or, to put it simply, a “Shia bomb,” which would provide an umbrella and immunity for promoting the spread of the Shia revolution and the survival of the regime. From Iran’s standpoint this will entail the redress of a historical injustice – dating back to the dawn of Islam – of contemptuous, arrogant treatment of the Shia by the Sunnis, while providing a viable, Islamic, Shia alternative for confronting the West and Israel, the West’s “handiwork” in the Middle East, after the repeated failures of Arab nationalism.

Should Iran complete its nuclear program and attain a bomb, Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states will be forced to settle for an American or Pakistani nuclear umbrella, and may even choose to launch their own nuclear program and thus open a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

More than they fear enriched uranium or a few thousand determined ISIS fighters, the Saudis fear Shiism enriched to high levels of subversion in the east of the kingdom (in the oil-rich areas with their restive Shia population) and to the south (along the border with Yemen). The Houthi takeover of Sana’a, which constitutes an Iranian victory in the pitched battle with Saudi Arabia over its backyard, Yemen, has augmented the Saudi sense of threat and shown that Iran, which is gaining a foothold at the entrance to the Red Sea and the major international shipping lanes, does not intend to stop there. From Iran’s standpoint, Yemen is part of a series of “heavenly” victories as Khamenei calls them (the “victory” of Hizbullah in the Second Lebanon War and the rounds of fighting between Hamas and Israel), as Iran builds its status as a regional power on the ruins of the old Arab and superpowers order.

The Sunni-Shia rivalry will continue to characterize and dictate the course of events in the region; meanwhile, as part of this struggle, Iran goes on gaining strategic territorial assets.

This rivalry will also continue to affect other conflict arenas throughout the Middle East where Iran will try to impose its influence, as it does in Lebanon through Hizbullah. Saudi Arabia, for its part, will keep trying to counter the Iranian-Shia threat, as it is doing in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq with great transfusions of money. This will be very difficult for Saudi Arabia in the absence of U.S. support.  Yemen, which is not threatened by ISIS and where Iran has now prevailed, is clearly a case in point.

The intensifying political-religious-military struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran has expanded to most of the Middle East’s countries. Iran’s power projection to the southern border of Saudi Arabia adds regional implications to the conflict between the Yemeni regime and the Shia rebels well beyond the domestic Yemeni dimension. The ongoing success of the al-Houthi tribe’s revolt with Tehran’s support, which has now led to the takeover of extensive parts of Yemen, creates another locus of regional confrontation (in addition to Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and the Palestinian territories) between Iran and Saudi Arabia, each with its own interests and proxies in the Yemeni arena.

In sum, Iran is continuing to exploit the Arab camp’s weakness and Washington’s hesitant policy toward the developments in the region since the start of the Arab Spring.  While the Gulf states, chiefly Saudi Arabia, are occupied with thwarting ISIS and are joining the rickety coalition the United States has formed to defeat it, Iran keeps pursuing with increased intensity and without fear its policy of exporting its revolution to main areas of conflict, particularly Iraq, Yemen, and Syria.

Via its proxies, Iran is gradually managing to take hold of strategic areas of the Arab world that are mired in ongoing internal crisis and where there is an active Shia population that has long been subject to Sunni authority. The Arab states’ weakness plays into Iran’s hands; it encounters no substantial resistance to its activity apart from feeble, toothless protests. As for the international community, Iran suddenly finds that it is the United States that, in effect, is helping strengthen and stabilize the Shia axis that extends from Iran through Iraq, Syria (where the United States refrained from military action after Bashar Assad crossed the chemical weapons “red line” it had drawn), Lebanon, and now also crosses the Red Sea to Yemen and back through Bahrain in a sort of circle surrounding the Arab world. For the Gulf states the fall of Sana’a (“the fourth Arab capital in Iran’s hands”) to the Shia rebels and the possibility that they will soon control the Bab al-Mandeb Strait constitute a “clear and present danger.”

In the context of its campaign against ISIS, the United States turned to — and was rebuffed by — Iran. Yet Washington believes that its interests in the struggle against ISIS overlap with those of Iran. As in the past, however, it is doing Tehran’s work (as in the defeat of the Taliban in 2001 and the ouster of Saddam Hussein) and serving Tehran’s long-term interest in achieving regional Shia hegemony. Washington is investing limited effort and great diplomatic energy in defeating about 20,000 ISIS operatives while simultaneously strengthening Iran and its role in Iraq and Syria. In actuality, the United States is playing in the Shia court and helping vanquish a radical Sunni actor (ISIS) that poses a substantial challenge to Iran. And in the court of the nuclear talks, the United States is not taking a strong position comparable to the red lines that Iranian Leader Khamenei is laying down.²⁷

Lapid: U.S. Veto At Security Council No Longer Assured

Finance Minister Yair Lapid said Saturday that ties between Israel and the US have reached such a nadir that the US’s assistance at the UN Security Council — including using its right to veto anti-Israel resolutions — was no longer assured.

“We are at an unprecedented low point in our ties with the US. No one knows what they will do when Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] goes to the Security Council. Their veto is not assured like before,” Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, said at a gathering in Tel Aviv.

The Palestinians have yet to formally submit to the UN Security Council a UN draft resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines by 2016, but are expected to do so in the coming weeks.

Despite Palestinian statements that the text would come up for a vote in November, Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour told AFP this week that no date had been set for the draft to be discussed at the 15-member council.

(The Times of Israel reported earlier this month that many in Jerusalem fear the US can no longer be relied upon to use its veto in the Security Council. In a second article, ToI’s Raphael Ahren wrote that in the Security Council’s present constellation, it will be difficult — though certainly not impossible — for Abbas to get the nine yes votes required to pass a resolution or force the US to veto it. “However, if Abbas decided to hold off until next year, when five of the non-permanent Security Council members will be replaced, the chances of the Palestinian demarche will increase significantly,” he noted.)

With no political solution in sight, governments and parliaments in Europe are moving toward Palestinian recognition, with France’s National Assembly set to vote on a non-binding resolution on December 2 after debating the issue on Friday.

In A First, ISIS Attacks Syrian Town From Turkey

Did We Just Witness The Last Great Black Friday Celebration Of American Materialism?

Most Americans are completely unaware of what is currently happening in the financial world, but right now there are deeply troubling signs that we could be on the verge of another major global financial collapse.  If the next great economic downturn does strike in 2015, that could mean that we may have just witnessed the last great Black Friday celebration of American materialism.  As you read this, stock prices are approximately double the value that they should be, margin debt is hovering near all-time record highs, and the “too big to fail” banks are being far more reckless than they were just prior to the last major stock market implosion.  So many of the exact same patterns that we witnessed back in 2007 and 2008 are repeating right now, and as you will see below, this includes a horrifying crash in the price of oil.  Anyone with half a brain should be able to see the slow-motion financial train wreck that is unfolding right before our eyes.

The next great financial crash (which many have been anticipating for years) is rapidly approaching.  So many of the same things that happened last time are happening again.  As I noted above, this includes a crash in the price of oil.

In the months prior to the last stock market collapse, the price of oil began plummeting dramatically in the summer of 2008.  This was an “early warning signal” that something was deeply amiss in the financial world…

Many people assume that a lower price for oil is good for the economy, but the exact opposite is actually true.  The oil industry has become absolutely critical to the U.S. and Canadian economies.  And in recent years, the “shale oil boom” has been one of the only bright spots for the United States.  If the shale oil industry starts to fail because of lower prices, a lot of the boom areas all over the nation are going to go bust really quickly and a lot of the financial institutions that were backing these projects are going to feel an immense amount of pain.

So just like we saw during the summer of 2008, crude oil prices are collapsing once again.  The chart below comes from the Federal Reserve, but it is a few days out of date.  Now that the price of crude is down to about 66 dollars, you have to imagine the price actually going below the bottom of this chart…

Needless to say, this price collapse is having a huge impact on the stock prices of oil companies.  The following information about what happened in the markets on Friday comes from Business Insider…

This comes at a time when there are already a whole host of signs that the global economy is slowing down.  Three of the ten largest economies on the planet have already slipped into recession, and the economic nightmare over in Europe just continues to get even worse.  In fact, we just learned that the unemployment rate in Italy has shot above 13 percent for the first time ever recorded.

And without a doubt, the next crash is coming.  Hopefully we have at least a couple more months of relative stability, but many experts are now urgently warning that time is quickly running out.

By this time next year, Black Friday may look a whole lot different than it does today.