Operation Empty Chair
U.S. counter-terror officials have asked Toyota, the world’s second largest auto maker, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota pick-up trucks and SUVs …
Attack at Istanbul’s Airport.
It’s Probably Nothing
To say nothing about the signal to world.
“We understand this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong Ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism.”
Terrorism? Russia? Syria? Silly me, those are all the same thing.
Operation Empty Chair
Always back the winning side: CIA-armed militias are shooting at Pentagon-armed ones in Syria
Welcome Home.
I have no problems what-so-ever, with the way he was treated in Australia or Canada.
I’m glad he’s back, glad he’s safe. I respect him for putting his life on the line for something he believed in.
I’m not arrogant enough to think the Western security forces don’t know stuff I don’t and that there are threats in that pipeline.
Operation Empty Chair
It was Aug. 30, 2013, and the U.S. military was poised for war. Obama had publicly warned Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad that his regime would face consequences if it crossed a “red line” by employing chemical weapons against its own people. Assad did it anyway, and Hagel had spent the day approving final plans for a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missile strikes against Damascus. U.S. naval destroyers were in the Mediterranean, awaiting orders to fire.
The World Is In The Very Best Of Hands
Operation Empty Chair
Who is funding ISIS?
…just last week in the aftermath of the French terror attack but long before the Turkish downing of the Russian jet, we wrote about “The Most Important Question About ISIS That Nobody Is Asking” in which we asked who is the one “breaching every known law of funding terrorism when buying ISIS crude, almost certainly with the tacit approval by various “western alliance” governments, and why is it that these governments have allowed said middleman to continue funding ISIS for as long as it has?”
Hint: It isn’t Halliburton.
Plans got Fast Tracked
The plan.
The fast track.
Update: Yeah, screw with the French.
French Interior Minister: We will start the "dissolution of mosques where hate is preached." https://t.co/BZwXLnBnp3 pic.twitter.com/sZ7JIvVPp9
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 15, 2015
Détente
If France goes all-in against ISIS it may prove to be an ice-breaker in East/West relations. I should say that by ‘all-in’ I mean troops in theatre and not just the air force, DGSE officers/agents and drone strikes.
France and Russia have had a more positive than negative relationship for a long time; before WWI, through the Communist era, and currently.
The Paris bombings change the channel on the actions taking place in Iraq and Syria. If, as President Hollande said, it’s war, then the strategic mission changes for the French. It moves from regime change and stability, as the US led mission is focused on, to eradication of ISIS. A goal the Russians share.
But can the West (read: Obama, Kerry), in supporting France, work with Russia in the near term to focus on ISIS?
Operation Empty Chair
“If you like your boots-free Syria, you can keep your boots-free Syria.”
What Just Happened in Syria?
Last week, after the White House announced its support for Syrian rebels was finished, the United States said it dropped 50 tons of ammunition from the air into Syria, ostensibly for unnamed Arab groups fighting ISIS. That, supposedly, was the last assistance those people were going to get.
A few days later, various anti-ISIS Syrian Arabs issued a collective, huh?
Operation Empty Chair
Frederic Hof, former special advisor for transition in Syria at the U.S. State Dep’t;
[A]s Syria began to descend into the hell to which Assad was leading it, I did not realize that the White House would see the problem as essentially a communications challenge: getting Obama on “the right side of history” in terms of his public pronouncements. What the United States would do to try to influence Syria’s direction never enjoyed the same policy priority as what the United States would say. […]
Having failed miserably as a prophet in 2011 does not deter me from predicting the following: Obama will bequeath to his successor a problem of gargantuan dimensions if he does not change policy course now. Left to the joint ministrations of Assad and the Islamic State, Syria will continue to hemorrhage terrified, hungry and hurt human beings in all directions while terrorists from around the globe feast on the carcass of an utterly ruined state. Western Europe now reaps a whirlwind of desperate and displaced humanity it thought would be limited to Syria’s immediate neighborhood.
A chilling, and necessary read.
I Felt A Great Disturbance In The Narrative
Germany’s open-door policy to refugees appeared to be unravelling tonight following the country’s reinstatement of border controls to curb the overwhelming influx of migrants.
Europe’s top economy halted all trains from Austria and, in an historic move, temporarily suspended the open borders Schengen agreement in response to the arrival of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in recent days.
The decision marks a dramatic shift away from the current abolishment of passport checks throughout Europe’s Schengen zone.
Operation Empty Chair
Two senior analysts at CENTCOM signed a written complaint sent to the Defense Department inspector general in July alleging that the reports, some of which were briefed to President Obama, portrayed the terror groups as weaker than the analysts believe they are. The reports were changed by CENTCOM higher-ups to adhere to the administration’s public line that the U.S. is winning the battle against ISIS and al Nusra, al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the analysts claim.
That complaint was supported by 50 other analysts, some of whom have complained about politicizing of intelligence reports for months. That’s according to 11 individuals who are knowledgeable about the details of the report and who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity.
Glenn Reynolds: SO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DID ALL THE STUFF THEY ACCUSED BUSH OF DOING. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS, BUSH WON THE WAR, AND THEY LOST IT.
I Felt A Great Disturbance In The Narrative
“Not an expert. Is 75% men, 12% women and 13% children a normal statistical breakdown?“
Operation Empty Chair
But I would argue another known known is that this grievous situation is not going to get better anytime soon. Do the exercise yourself. Project out five years from now: Is it likely Syria will have stabilized? Is it likely Iraq will have? Yemen? Will Libya? In recent weeks, I’ve posed these questions to various experts from the U.S. military and diplomatic community and from the countries within the region itself. Their response was always that in all these cases it’s more likely than not that turmoil will persist — not only for the next five years, but quite possibly for much, much longer than that.
These experts might all be wrong about one or two of these cases. But it seems unlikely they are wrong. But here’s the one known unknown you can take to the bank: The Middle East is in a period of protracted crisis and instability, and, as we have seen with each passing day, the collateral damage and knock-on effects grow worse. While Syria is already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, having endured more than four years of war, with hundreds of thousands dead and more than 7 million internally displaced, many more months and years of war will clearly only exacerbate that. Some 6 million are at severe risk of famine in Yemen. Libyans crowd onto small rubber rafts and pack into boats in the often vain hope of making their way to Europe. Refugee camps are posing a potentially unsustainable burden in Jordan and Lebanon. Unrest is begetting more unrest. One U.S. military leader told me that the Islamic State was reducing its recruitment efforts because it did not need them — more would-be extremists were volunteering. Continuing in the same vein, try the thought experiment yourself: Do you consider it more or less likely that extremism will add to the number of countries in crisis in the next five years? In North Africa? Sinai? Saudi Arabia? Afghanistan? How will falling oil prices exacerbate this? The meddling of a reenergized Iran?
With friends like these.
Desperate to save face Obama inks another bad deal. Well, bad for our only allies who actually have skin in the game.
The deal between the US and Turkey which will allow American bombers to use Incirlik airbase while Turkey takes action against Islamic State (Isis) looks stranger and stranger. When first announced over a week ago, US officials spoke triumphantly of the agreement being “a game-changer” in the war against Isis. In fact, the war waged by Turkey in the days since this great American diplomatic success has been almost entirely against the Kurds, at home and abroad.
What difference does it make?
Obama and Clinton knew almost immediately who was behind Benghazi.
As Glenn Reynolds is wont to say, Potemkin Villages, all the way down.
Well, she’s qualified for President, she can lie, cheat, and steal. She has no morals or values and her only commitments is to herself, her team, and the Democrats…in that order.