[shouting into her helmet comm at the reporter for Vogue magazine dug in 2 clicks east] Incoming!
[Vogue team scrambles for cover]
[BOOM!]
PUNDITA: Are you okay?
VOGUE: Those sons of bitches mussed up my hairdo! Man the TOW! [Vogue camera person fires a TOW missile at tank in the distance]
PUNDITA: Um, I'm told the idea about reporting from a war zone is to keep a low profile and I think it's time to retrench.
VOGUE: Balls! I'm calling for close air support!
PUNDITA: Good luck getting through to CENTCOM's air support hotline.
VOGUE: To hell with CENTCOM! I'm calling Anna Wintour!
[Four minutes later two British Tornado bombers obliterate tanks nearest the Vogue position]
VOGUE: [barking into her satphone] And tell her I need a hair stylist! I can't go on camera looking like this!
PUNDITA: [muttering to herself] Maybe I should try reporting for Vogue.
Now let's see what sources have dug up about Mordor's regime [taptaptaptap].
Bah. One those tiresome articles that attempt to interest the American reader in NATO machinations against Russia (NATO: Seeking Russia’s Destruction Since 1949; Counterpunch, Gary Leupp, December 25, 2015). But wait; there's something about Queen Vicki:
... Yanukovich did not want Ukraine to join NATO: he wanted a neutral Ukraine maintaining the traditional close relationship between the Ukraine and Russia. This infuriated Victoria Nuland, the head of the Eurasia desk at the State Department, who has made it her life’s project to pull Ukraine into NATO.
This would be NATO’s ultimate prize in eastern Europe: a country of 44 million well-educated people, the size of France, strategically located on the Black Sea historically dominated by the Russian Black Sea Fleet. An ethnically divided country, with a generally pro-Russian and Russian-speaking east, and a more western-oriented Ukrainian-speaking west with an unusually vigorous and fiercely anti-Russian neofascist movement -- just there waiting to be used.
Nuland, a former Cheney aide whose neocon worldview drew Hillary Clinton’s favorable attention, resulting in her promotion, is the wife of neocon pundit and Iraq War cheerleader Robert Kagan. (Kagan was a founding member of the notorious Project for a New American Century “think tank”.) The couple represents two wings of incessant neocon plotting: those who work to destroy Russia, and those who work to destroy the Middle East, consciously using lies to confuse the masses about their real goals. ...This is making no sense. Mrs. Clinton hates Dick Cheney. She hates the neocons. Why should she promote Nuland at State? And not just promote her; she put Nuland in charge of Ukraine's government. No joke. Nuland was calling the shots there. She even went over Kerry's head about Ukraine when he took over at State. Why didn't he demote her? He might have pushed her back in her cage by now. But why would Clinton, a Democratic liberal, have given a neocon so much power at State in the first place?
This calls for research. [taptaptaptaptap] Oh that's right; I'd forgotten:
Arab nations’ donations to Clinton Foundation: Curing world’s ills or currying favor?
by Greg Gordon
April 6, 2015
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Four oil-rich Arab nations, all with histories of philanthropy to United Nations and Middle Eastern causes, have donated vastly more money to the Clinton Foundation than they have to most other large private charities involved in the kinds of global work championed by the Clinton family.
Since 2001, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates gave as much as $40 million to the Clinton Foundation. In contrast, six similar non-governmental global charities collected no money from those same four Middle Eastern countries [...]Mystery solved, "neocons" being shorthand for 'We support American weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and anything Al Saud can do to stick it to the Russians including making a mess in Ukraine.'
[squinting through field glasses] But I must say this is a mysterious place. Let's see what other Mordor news I can scare up. Here's something from Sputnik datelined 12/26:
Social media accounts linked to Daesh released photos of the group's fighters using US-made TOW anti-tank missiles in Syria's Aleppo province.
According to the release, the missiles being used are located north of Kweires Airbase, which was recently liberated from Daesh by the Syrian Army. The Daesh-held area in that part of Syria is adjacent to the Turkish border.But al-towi in the hands of Islamic State in Syria is old news; in fact, on 12/24 Sputnik published a report, US Reportedly Continues to Supply Weapons to al-Qaeda Through Syria's FSA. It features an AP photo from an Islamic State website showing an IS fighter firing a TOW "in Hassakeh, northeast Syria." The caption also notes that IS released the photo on June 26, 2015.
And here's a Sputnik reader showing off her knowledge of technical matters:
Gary Leupp, a professor of history at Tufts University, is pretty knowledgeable about the Cold War, at least the European-American aspect of it under discussion in his article. But he doesn't mention to Counterpunch readers that after Stalin's death the American-led NATO cold war against the Soviet Union was actually the Saudi war against Russian oil. And I suppose some would say the war was going on even during Stalin's time.
Steph Iam ·Hand-me-downs? The Saudis paid good money for those TOWs. Maybe they get a discount on volume but still. And "dated?" That's an insult to Raytheon, which makes TOWs and also happens to be our sponsor. [muttering to herself] $22.8 billion in sales last year but they can't afford a camera person for me. Or a hair stylist. And they're not on first-name basis with the RAF commander.
It must be embarrassing for the US with all the reports of the TOW missiles ineffectiveness against the Russian T-90 armour. So many TOW crews blown to smithereens by the Shtora system returning a round within 2 seconds of sensing their weapon's laser targetting. Plenty of TOW operators don't even get the chance to fire before they get blown to pieces, much less have time to guide the missile to its target. High tech weapons in the hands of experts, up against dated, hand-me-downs from the US (in the hands of drug-addicted terrorists).
Gary Leupp, a professor of history at Tufts University, is pretty knowledgeable about the Cold War, at least the European-American aspect of it under discussion in his article. But he doesn't mention to Counterpunch readers that after Stalin's death the American-led NATO cold war against the Soviet Union was actually the Saudi war against Russian oil. And I suppose some would say the war was going on even during Stalin's time.
Anyhow, maybe Leupp simply doesn't know. That wouldn't be surprising. The war has continued to this day; it's just that it isn't talked about openly. I've seen the same reticence or ignorance about the U.S.-led Afghan War, and the current Syrian War. It might have been the same with Gaddafi's overthrow.
It's as if entire chapters have been ripped out of modern history to protect Al Saud.
Only very recently, since the Russian air campaign, has it become widely known that the Saudis and their Gulf allies have been fielding mercenary armies to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, but there are still gaps in knowledge about the situation and how early it began. Same with the Saudi involvement in Afghanistan and their influence with Pakistan.
At least the doughty Catherine Shakdam isn't keeping quiet. She reported on 12/24:
Prince Ali Seraj, a member of Afghanistan’s royal family and grandson of His Majesty Amir Habibullah (1901-1919), is adamant Afghanistan was set up for failure, sold to chaos by powers whose interests are vested in war instead of peace.
“Looking at Afghanistan today and how Western powers have handled the whole terror dossier and it is quite clear that chaos was always the name of the game. Why else have Western powers systematically refused to assist the Afghan tribes, while covering for Pakistan’s aiding and abetting of radicals?” Prince Ali told me on Wednesday.
“It is Pakistan you see behind the Taliban … and Pakistan is no more than another agent of Saudi Arabia, the world’s greatest exporter of Wahhabism. Do you seriously believe the Taliban and al-Qaeda just manifested into existence? They were imported from Tajikistan, Chechnya, Pakistan and those regions which are under the control of Riyadh,” he emphasized.Prove it, Prince Ali. Until you produce hard evidence you can join a lengthening list of people crying in the wilderness.
********
1 comment:
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Madam.
Now.
In anything involving Russia and Neo-Cons in particular Ukraine one should go back to the 1990s and the rape of Russia.
Ahem.
for that matter the rape of Ukraine.
Money my dear. Ukraine is or began as a bankers looting spree that when Yankuovich rejected in favor of a Moscow deal found Soro's paid professional hellraisers in Maidan square.
Of course Soros wrote an NYT Op-Ed encouraging NATO to go to war over Ukraine.
Money my dear. Money. Money and very guilty consciences. And utter desperation to get more before the derivatives - now compressed to $552T and hence probably as low as they can go- explode again.
Post a Comment