... support for opposing sides in a conflict, the world should take note. The precautionary principle should be applied.
Had the United States and its allies listened to Russian (and Chinese) advice to take a more conservative approach to regime change in Iraq and Libya, it is likely that much human suffering would have been avoided. It is hard to imagine that events in either country could have turned out worse than they did.
Now a sadly familiar story is unfolding in Syria. Since 2011 hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed. Out of a population of 23 million, 3 million have fled the country and 6 million have been internally displaced. Western Europe is inundated with assylum-seekers. The barbaric Islamic State organization has flourished....
... conflict with direct intervention by degrading the Assad regime’s military capabilities and limiting the shipments of weapons into Syria with a combination of naval blockades, no-fly-zones, and the U.S. specifically partnering with its allies Iraq and (NATO member) Turkey to use drones, reconnaissance flights, and other high-tech monitoring equipment to lock down Syria’s land borders with both nations. NATO could have played a significant role in such an operation, too, not terribly ...
... Iranian allies that he would see our troops out in 2011. We will come to ISIS (and Obama’s mild military reengagement in Iraq) and Syria as separate issues.
Israeli/Palestinian Peace
Here, one may be tempted to make more of the efforts of the ... ... Israel announced the construction of 1,600 settlement housing units to be built on illegally occupied, disputed land in East Jerusalem (which was occupied in 1967 along with the West Bank and Gaza and which Israel has held in defiance of multiple binding ...
... carrier to the Gulf. The
decision was taken
, by the way, before the terrorist attacks in Paris Its air force
went into action
on February 25. Other countries that contributed strong contingents are Great Britain and Australia.
www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/
US Navy B-1B "Lancer" Bomber Aircraft
on a combat flight
The countries that make up this group only deliver strikes on militants’ positions in Iraq. The reason for this is the flimsy diplomatic grounds for strikes on Syria without the consent of the Bashar al-Assad government and/or sanctions of the UN Security Council. The only exception is Great Britain’s
reconnaissance flights over ...
By Brian E. Frydenborg, February 26th, 2015 (updated February 27th-28th)
Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse here
If you think your site or another would be a good place for this content please do not hesitate to reach out to me! Please feel free to share and repost on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter (you can follow me there at @bfry1981)
One of the sad things about looking at current commentary about Russia, America, and the state of their relationship is the lack of measured and reasoned...
... Maliki’s closest allies, including the Shiite Iranian regime (arguable even a bigger supporter of him than the U.S.), began to distance themselves from him and abandon him.
The Obama Administration Makes Its Move: Checkmate on Maliki
Tens of thousands of Yazidis were running out of time, though, and facing genocide, and ISIS kept making gains, even threatening Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. With intense pressure coming at Maliki from all angles, Obama announced on August 7 that U.S. forces would carry out limited air strikes in Iraq aimed at halting ISIS’s advance. Many of these initial strikes were in the north, helping ...
... military spending.
One reason to be optimistic about addressing the IS problem is that there is a 'coaltion of the unwilling' which is nonetheless appearing more assertive than its more 'willing' counterpart back to 2003 in Iraq. No wonder since the threat for other states in the region is formidable. On the other side, the new Iraqi government shall be one of the major pieces of the puzzle since it has to become a better alternative for Iraqi Sunnites. Concentrating power ...
... 2003. However, the grouping very quickly became a center of attraction for jihadists of every stripe, migrating from among the countries of the Middle East, as well as of North, West and East Africa.
Currently, there are 80 thousand individuals (50 thousand in Iraq and 30 thousand in Syria) fighting under the black banner of the Islamic State
[3]
. According to Western media, around 3 thousand of them come from Europe, the United States and the former Soviet republics, including Russia (mostly from Chechnya),...
... Mahmood and Mehdi Dehnavi comment
The area that the Islamic state controls today in Iraq and in Syria is more than the territory of Great Britain?
How does Washington's decision at the beginning of the military action in Syria coincide with the refusal of the United States to send troops to fight the Islamic State in Iraq?
So far, the United States has pursued the same strategic line, that is, bombardment by aircraft and missiles of Iraqi territory, and now of Syria too. The area of air strikes is likely to expand. I would like to emphasize once again, that such air ...
... send troops to participate in operations abroad for a short time. However, given the upcoming mid-term elections to Congress at the end of the year, Barack Obama does not want to antagonize the House of Representatives and does not need Republican accusations that he is set to send troops back to Iraq.
For Iraq against Kurdistan
AP, Bilal Fawzi
Alexander Aksenyonok:
Jihad Erupts Again: Why Now and What Next
Iran's interests in Iraq are somewhat different from those of America.
Tehran is interested in maintaining a secular Iraq
and considers the ...