The United States kills Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani

[shaberon]

Iran has placed itself in the odd position of supporting the Turkish Tobruk GNA in Libya.

The other side is supported by Egypt, Italy, Greece, Syria, and Russia.

Iran also states they see some U. S. drawdown from Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of that is showing up in Syria, as, perhaps, the "Russian quagmire" has replaced "Iranian threat". They are speaking of doing the same thing from Japan and Germany.

The German response is more or less correct, that NATO is not a "trade organization", i. e. they don't exactly "pay membership dues" the way Trump is talking about it.

They believe the occupation is necessary for European and U. S. security. The Germans said this. What is more telling is:

"Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon has been able to provide any information about this" Maas noted.

In other words, the State Department is the first thing that comes to his mind to deal with.

How, exactly, the State Department and Germany might have a firm consensus about those security needs in 2020, has something to do, on our side, with it not being an elected body but an appointed one, and, on their side...I don't know. It is their Foreign Minister, which suggests someone voted him in.

[Mashika]

NATO is not a "trade organization, i. e. they don't exactly "pay membership dues" the way Trump is talking about it"

Trump is so unaware of what NATO really does, or why it came to exists in first place

He, as a lot of people, think it's something the world wanted so they would get protection from the US, so he wants payment for this 'protection' while ignoring totally that it's the other way around in the first place. NATO is/was the buffer zone between the Soviet Union and the US, it was meant to be so that Russia would waste all resources fighting every country between them and US, giving the US time enough to build up on resources and go into war in the end, once Russia would be weak

Is not a secret this is how it started, and as said before, even the Soviet Union wanted to join NATO at some point, so naive those guys LOL

Countries are awakening to reality that the US fooled into thinking Russia was a danger so they needed to pay for protection, and open their borders so the US would silently occupy the world "in the name of peace"

Most people in the US are and continue to be unaware of what really happened

[Mashika]

Earlier this Saturday, the US attempted to provoke Russian forces into a fight, even bumping one of the Russian APCs when they did not get the reaction they wished for





So now it has gotten into "if you don't react, i'm going to crash into your vehicle so that you get angry and give us what we need to start a fight"

Yuusssss sir, but it ended in nothing, too bad for the US, again.


Sorry for the terrible quality, those are the best pics, bad camera phone i guess

[shaberon]

Posted by Mashika (here)

He, as a lot of people, think it's something the world wanted so they would get protection from the US, so he wants payment for this 'protection' while ignoring totally that it's the other way around in the first place. NATO is/was the buffer zone between the Soviet Union and the US, it was meant to be so that Russia would waste all resources fighting every country between them and US, giving the US time enough to build up on resources and go into war in the end, once Russia would be weak

As in many of the old wars, intelligence was so bad, it was often wrong.

America got doubly-deluded by using the former German spies. They had the advantage of being nestled all over Europe, and, the disadvantage of being motivated to deliberately mislead.

Nuking Japan was a lie, it was all about scaring the Soviets with eminent nuclear threat.

But the U. S. was in no way able to mount a Hitler-esque rerun of an invasion or war, much as the U. S. S. R. was not really about to take over the world. Both sides honestly believed in these things. I guess some Germans believe they are still about to be taken over. Or, they just can't defend themselves. Either way, they like being occupied, and being nothing but a farm for the European Central Bank. One might expect some kind of nationalistic movement to arise there, and kick out the foreign dominance, possibly removing most of their elected politicians. Or, maybe we can get the pope to come out and spontaneously crown someone Holy Roman Emperor. They can do that, you know. And when it happens, it happens by surprise.




Syria has received a few upgraded Mig-29s, which are believed effective to get rid of an F-16.

Egypt has been asleep almost all my life. However, recent studies rank its military above Israel, Iran, or Turkey. Part of the reason is they have sourced hardware from the U. S., Russia, Germany, and Italy, in other words, they have been smart shoppers, instead of relying on only one kind. The eyes may be on the Libyan unrest, but, is an obvious message to Israel.

[Mashika]

I find very odd how Egypt is just sitting there, all silent and being ignored by most every other country on the region, it's like they just waiting for all others to kill themselves then just take over or some sort of similar approach to the issue in the middle east

True they must have a great army, who just passes as a small one due to not being on the eyes of everyone. I even wonder what they have there, that they may be hiding away by not being "in the news"

[shaberon]

Posted by Mashika (here)
it's like they just waiting for all others to kill themselves then just take over or some sort of similar approach to the issue in the middle east

Yes, a bit of a sleeping Bear, isn't it?

Here, they were a big deal until the Camp David accords ca. 1979, and then, the assassination of Anwar Sadat is the only time I can remember from all of public school when there was an announcement and a moment of silence. And then we never hear of them again.

One thing they have done is gotten the main American combat helicopter, Apache, and also the main Russian one, Warthog or Alligator, can't remember which. They stress-tested these and found that they are awesome in their respective roles. It just happens to be the Apache is specific and limited, and the Russian is more broad-based. So then they correspondingly built the Air Force with a low ratio of Apaches, since there is less call for them, but if needed, they have it.

I think they have also gone heavily into submarines.

Turkey is also invading northern Iraq. However at sea they are opposed by Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Egypt, and since Egypt borders Libya, they are being awakened at least minorly. Athens told the Turks that one minor incident will have very wide repercussions, it sounds like they are just waiting for an excuse. Very belligerent terms coming from there.

Egypt's total population is over 100 million, bigger than Turkey or Iran, both around 80 million. More manpower and the highest-rated fire power in the region and something like 9th in the world, shortly behind the so-called superpowers.

The weakness of it may be no internal production. If they piss off the Germans, they won't get German parts. The U. S. does this to itself, by issuing sanctions, then it actually loses suppliers for its own military parts. Since Egypt has a hand in several pots, that constrains what it can do. It has usually been the second largest recipient of U. S. military aid, after Israel. So it actually "needs" America, at least financially, even if it is closer to Russia, politically.

It has had too many opposing factions, Muslim Brotherhood, Shia, and so on, which has also prevented it from coming to any unifying consensus.

What is going to happen, is, the all-important Suez Canal will eventually be shipping to the Chinese-built Port Piraeus in Greece, and therefor Rotterdam will fall out of relevance. Piraeus is obviously much closer, and the facility will be about five times as big. That is "almost everything" in terms of geo-politics. Wahhabism &c. was spurred by the British for the purposes of opening Suez, and, all that hard work is about to be discarded, when the new destination is less British-friendly.

[shaberon]

The visit of the new Quds Commander to Syria is believed to foreshadow an escalation against U. S. forces. The Israeli Air Force seems to have chased him with bombing raids at Deir Ezzur and Abu Kamal.

Although some of it was repelled, there was material damage and casualties. Israel sounds like it is barking louder and louder. Who knows what they will really do. Probably not the right thing like create a non-apartheid state.

[shaberon]

Russia withdrew from the U. N. clearinghouse on Syrian humanitarian missions, disputing it as misinformation giving cover to terrorists.

Commenting on the Russian withdrawal from the UN mechanism, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, said the United States was “shocked” by the Russian decision.

Iran is going after not just Trump, but, thirty-six war criminals involved in the assassination. I suppose they have some kind of gentleman's handshake with Turkey since both nations oppose PKK. Egypt is telling Turkey to back down because they have allies inside Turkey that can "reach Ankara".



Meanwhile China has prototyped a Gauss Rifle.

Shooting through steel plates:

[Mashika]

Posted by shaberon (here)
The visit of the new Quds Commander to Syria is believed to foreshadow an escalation against U. S. forces. The Israeli Air Force seems to have chased him with bombing raids at Deir Ezzur and Abu Kamal.

Although some of it was repelled, there was material damage and casualties. Israel sounds like it is barking louder and louder. Who knows what they will really do. Probably not the right thing like create a non-apartheid state.

It does seem to lead to that, as just yesterday the Syrian army stopped some US army trucks, insulted them and forced them to go back to their base, while following them to ensure they would go to their base and not find another route to work around the Syrian army points. It worked so far, it looks like the US is not being respected anymore

Unfortunately can't find an English version of this (As if any American or western channel would post this ) but if you use Chrome you may right click on an empty space and chose translate to English, it won't give subtitles but at least translates the description text and comments, which gives a good idea of what happened

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fu7yynwTzHk

ETA:Wrong video, can't find the real one that has all the situation recorded, will update as soon as i find it again :/ Truly sorry for the confusion

Had the full video before, however seems i lost the url :/

Here's a link to the story in written form, hopefully will help
https://translate.google.com/transla...s%2F1593715693

[shaberon]

Yes. U. S. is pushing back with some of its own "get off the road" harassment, and apparently setting up an airbase in eastern Syria.

Israel is "just going to annex the West Bank".

The Idlib campaign is started, which Syria considers its final phase against so-called terrorists, which will be the transition for them to place more and more resources against state actors. Armed aggression is more of a problem with Turkey right now, which also has somewhat of a position in the "three corners" area by having forces in Iraq.

[shaberon]

This is a bit bizarre.

Israel has anounced a new intelligence unit called 9900.

However this thing was already the target years ago at the one Israeli site Syria fired on. This report said their systems were knocked out of service and they took a few hits and evacuated.

I guess we knew they had this and it is not all that tough?

[Mashika]

Posted by shaberon (here)
Israel is "just going to annex the West Bank".

If that happens, i can only say that it will bring terrible suffering to tons and tons of people. Very bad stuff going on with that, it's bizarre indeed :/

[silvanelf]

Lol ... if you have military equipment from both sides (US and Russia), then you can perform some interesting tests.

Turkey is testing its the S-400 air defense system obtained from Russia by detecting and tracking US F-35 and F-22 fighter jets, according to media reports circulating online.

Over the past few days, Turkish and Russian pedia outlets have repeatedly speculated that the S-400 system deployed at Murted Air Base on outskirts of Turkish capital of Ankara.

In 2019, Turkey used its Air Force F-16 jets to test the S-400 and the system demonstrated high capabilities. In 2020, as tensions between the US and Turkey, as well as between Turkey and other NATO members were growing, Ankara allegedly used the S-400 to track US warplanes operating in the region.

https://southfront.org/turkey-tests-...n-middle-east/

[shaberon]

Posted by silvanelf (here)
Lol ... if you have military equipment from both sides (US and Russia), then you can perform some interesting tests.

Seems to be the case. As far as I know, this tactic is also used by Egypt and India. Not many can get themselves in a position where they are able to do this.

[Mashika]

Posted by silvanelf (here)
Lol ... if you have military equipment from both sides (US and Russia), then you can perform some interesting tests.

Turkey is testing its the S-400 air defense system obtained from Russia by detecting and tracking US F-35 and F-22 fighter jets, according to media reports circulating online.

Over the past few days, Turkish and Russian pedia outlets have repeatedly speculated that the S-400 system deployed at Murted Air Base on outskirts of Turkish capital of Ankara.

In 2019, Turkey used its Air Force F-16 jets to test the S-400 and the system demonstrated high capabilities. In 2020, as tensions between the US and Turkey, as well as between Turkey and other NATO members were growing, Ankara allegedly used the S-400 to track US warplanes operating in the region.

https://southfront.org/turkey-tests-...n-middle-east/

Most of the Russian and US armament sold to other countries are "E" versions. They lack the capabilities of the real thing, they look the same but are way lesses versions of the real thing. That and other thing is that in some cases contracts forbid the buyer to show or do some things without specific permission, and for this there is also some clauses where the buyer doesn't have full control over the tech they got

That's why the US is trying very hard to get an S-400 system from Turkey.

After tons of years they are wishing to get one of those, but is not that simple so far

Same for Russia, or China

"E" versions of the machines, allow you to use them but not to understand how they work internally, so you can't replicate them unless you take them apart entirely and back engineer. Which would be a problem because the seller would know immediately

[Mashika]

Things getting out of control in Syria now, direct confrontation between US and Russian army forces, it's not just the other countries but now it is a direct face to face

Video:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3BOOr4O_y8o

Russian soldier asked
"This is the land of the Syria Arab Republic. Russian Armed Forces were invited here by president Bashar al-Assad. Who invited you US forces here?"

News article
https://rusvesna.su/news/1595013487

English translation here:
https://translate.google.com/transla...s%2F1595013487

Doesn't look good now, it grows into hard confrontations day by day :/

[shaberon]

According to Al Masdar, the Russians chased an American patrol, caught it, surrounded it, told them to stay away and go back to their generals and say get the hell out.

If we look at who the civilians attack with stones and small arms, it isn't the Russians.

No background to this yet, but:

Israeli Occupation forces arrested Adnan Ghaith, Jerusalem Governor.





Turkey is offering weapons to the Azeris.

I have to repeat that for several years now, American commanders' assessment of their forces is that in a hot conflict with Russia, the expectancy for the American troops is:

instant annihilation.

The whole country of Israel could perhaps last a little longer, but, think of how fragile it is. They don't want any kind of civilian toll, not even a displacement. Yet they think that taking Jerusalem and West Bank will go smoothly thanks to U. S. complicity.

[shaberon]

Israel is getting a bit more frequent with attacking Syria. Some of it is damaging.

Russia hasn't made any noise about it, but, the independent air traffic monitor Avia reported:


“Despite claims that Russia may not have control over the airspace over the region, it turned out that a few minutes before the IDF strike, Russia had lifted its military aircraft from the Khmeimim airbase, which allegedly took off in a southeast direction,” the publication began, pointing out “the rise of Russian aviation assets was recorded at 21 hours 47 minutes, while Israel launched an attack at 21 hours 48 minutes.”

“Given the distance from Khmeimim airbase to Damascus, Russian aircraft could have covered it in a matter of minutes, but analysts believe that Russia rather prevented the IDF from continuing its strikes as the attack was carried out from airspace controlled by the Israeli military.”

[shaberon]

This has all been rather quiet lately, perhaps from another American drawdown in Iraq.

Unfortunately the insightful journalist Andre Vitchek has passed away in suspicious circumstances in Turkey. He was taking a taxi ride with his wife, who thought he was asleep, but it turned out he was just dead.

Sometimes that happens naturally, but it sounds a bit off.

[Mashika]

Posted by shaberon (here)
This has all been rather quiet lately, perhaps from another American drawdown in Iraq.

Unfortunately the insightful journalist Andre Vitchek has passed away in suspicious circumstances in Turkey. He was taking a taxi ride with his wife, who thought he was asleep, but it turned out he was just dead.

Sometimes that happens naturally, but it sounds a bit off.

Just a few days ago i read a post from a person in Damascus, he was talking about news that an Irarian oil tanker was hit by the US, and it had a picture on it of a tanker and lots of smoke, but after i went looking for more info, the entire post had been removed. Perhaps it was a mistake and he removed it, perhaps it was not? I could not find anything and asking about it basically got me ignored by the guy. I don't know what to think of it

Most likely it was fake news he assumed to be true, but casually, next day or two i watched on a Colombian channel that a tanker was sinking on the Venezuelan borders, and that it had tons of oil on it and a ship was going to be sent to retrieve the oil before it could spill into the ocean

Could these two events be the same? Nowhere on that video i watched, they mentioned why the tanker was sinking in the first place, so it makes me wonder

Very confusing news lately