More Death From the Sky by Merciless Superpower in Syria!
No, not that nuclear armed state. The other one that bombs the crap out of Syria (and other Middle Eastern countries) day in and day out. No, its the one that never admits it is wrong, usually blaming the terrorists and the victims, or occasionally saying that "mistakes were made, and gosh we're sorry." Today's bombing falls into the latter category.
An airstrike by the US-led coalition in Syria killed 18 members of allied rebel forces on the ground in Syria after they were mistaken for so-called Islamic State fighters, the Pentagon has announced.
A statement said the attack on Tuesday had mistakenly targeted members of the moderate Syrian Democratic Forces stationed to the south of the city Tabqa.
Damn, there the US military goes again, shooting the "good guys." Tom be honest, I didn't know there were any "moderate" rebels left in Syria (moderate being a relative term), and I wonder of this was really a mistake, or sent to send a message to some of our allies to stay on script. But hey, I don't want to be labeled a conspiracy theorist, so I'm sure that our country's air force with the most sophisticated intelligence and surveillance "assets in the region just made an honest mistake. Just like all the other mistakes we've made whenever we drop bombs on people "over there." Shit happens, you know. Can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. {Add your own hackneyed adage here]
Better luck next time brave Syrian Freedom Fighters.
Comments
Collateral damage, we didn't mean it honest
I always doubt that the dead give a fuck about
Who bombed them
What weapon/munition killed them
War is not healthy
"War is not healthy for children and other living things!"
And that really is the bottom line!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Did the US itself do this?
Or was it some "coalition" member (or NOT!!) who has US-made weapons?
Practically everybody out there in the Levant has American weapons these days. Friend, enemy, you name it.
Without more details as to who exactly pulled the trigger, it's pretty hard to place the blame for this.
All is part of the territory when your country is the biggest arms merchant on Earth. And, of course, that's where the real problem is.
The USA desperately needs a peace-based industrial economy. And we don't have one.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Yes, we do.
Space, medicine, sustainable energy. Earth and its inhabitants would be royalty on a McMansion planet if the same amount of time, money and energy had gone into them instead of fucking war.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
We do?
But they haven't; hence my complaint.
I live in the one locality in America where this is at its most severe: El Paso County, Colorado. The fucking war pigs have destroyed every major industry this area, the Pike's Peak Region of Colorado, could claim in 1950. Private agriculture? History, as farmers and ranchers had to sell their land for ever more and ever larger military installations, and their water rights to sustain the swarms of military personnel and their families and supporters which the war pigs sent here. Tourism? We've been trying -- and failing -- to make the Pike's Peak Region a terminal tourist destination since General William J. Palmer's days (1836 - 1909). And, of course, the reason we sold out to the DOD to begin with: the playing-out (petering-out) of the Cripple Creek District's mines. We needed jobs with the same pay scales as mining, which demanded no more preparation than mining did. And lo, it was World War II; my readers should know how the rest of the story went from there by doing the math.
So that's why I have the view towards peace-footing industry in the USA that I do. To quote the original Zork game (MIT's original Dungeon), "I can't see one here!"
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Actually I have spent a couple of weeks in the area
in the mountains west of Colorado Springs and thoroughly enjoyed them. It is nice to get out of cell phone contact on occassion.
out of cell phone range in the mountains
It's a wonderful place to visit. Unless you're seriously in bed with the war industry, however, you don't want to live here. One exception is if you are a reasonably well-off retiree who doesn't need to work for a living any more. But if you need there to be a reasonable supply of peace-oriented jobs paying adult wages without demanding a university degree, you need to move on.
I'm in a bind in that way; I remember when that wasn't so. We had military, yes, but we also had a peacetime private-sector economy too. But that was pretty much history by 1985.
Everything hereabouts is determined by the supply of potable water. And the Pike's Peak region's watersheds have been deteriorating in effectiveness since Native American times. The supply of available water dictates that you can either have a real economy for maybe 150,000 people, or you can have 500,000 people living here utterly dependent on imported money. The PTB hereabouts, who are completely in bed with the war pigs, chose the latter and were rewarded with a goodly slathering of the said imported money.
But you're right about the mountains. Excellent natural environment, but infested by too many naked apes, and of the wrong sort to boot.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Ah, so who made a mistake?
U.S.-Led Coalition Airstrike Kills 18 Anti-Assad Fighters in Syria: Pentagon
How convenient to have 'partnered forces' in a coalition air strike ... led by the US. Now we just have to spread the blame among the partnered forces and not just to the US, so each of them partners can feel a little less guilty.
https://www.euronews.com/live
The Arab brigade that suffered the losses
are pulling out. They blame the YPG for giving the wrong coordinates to the Americans. The SDF is 80% Kurd and 20% Arab so there is no way the SDF can be used to push further south than Raqqa and Tabqah. It is completely out of their traditional areas of influence and there will be a push-back by Arab forces.
This particular event will strain relations even more. Manbij is much more important to the Kurds than Raqqa.
Stats misleading
--
In the area around Raqqa the SDF is majority Arab.
From the Light House.
The US killed more than 1000 civilians in the M.E. in March
alone. The costs and sorrows of empire are no impediment to US imperialism.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
What's Hillary doing now?
Very informative show on US/Russia
Stephen F. Cohen on John Batchelor show
Tales of the New Cold War: Trump, Syria & Russia’s Red Lines. Stephen F. Cohen
Thanks for the link. It confirms
for me the timing of Trump's bombing of Syrian airport. When I first heard about it, I thought "but Xi was with Trump when he fired the missiles." One report said that Xi and company had left Trump's palace before the action. But then Trump says they were fired during dessert of a "big chocolate cake" with X at Mar-a-Lago. According to Trump, Xi looked shocked at the revelation. Still trying to figure out Trump's timing when I heard the discussion on the John Batchelor show just now that this was done deliberately and it could only be for one reason "to humiliate the Chinese leader." And the Chinese abhor this kind of humiliation. Still questioning why Trump/the US would want to humiliate the Chinese leader. Or was this just Trump's nefarious idea?
To thine own self be true.
Care for some 'beautiful' cake?
Trump is a bombastic half-wit. Putin and Xi are both intelligent and rational. That's why both their countries have advanced so much in the last decades while the US is circling the bowl at an ever faster rate.
And we just dropped a MOAB on Afghanistan.
Don't even want to think about the collateral damage on that one.
The generals are having their say. This is drunk graduation night shit...
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
@CB @detroitmechworks
Edit: not sure how I worked this, but I was aiming for Alligator Ed and have two different numbers, 7, then 5, then another 7 for the 'reply to'? Couldn't sleep at all last night, which makes life especially interesting, as far as bizarre errors go. Previously, on one or another thread, I did accidentally hit reply on an intended rec, but I didn't go through the multi-stage wait to get to where I could cancel it and go back and assumed that it would only apply to that thread...
1 green Beret was killed, so a 21000-pound bomb was dropped, but they say all care was taken to avoid civilians. Bet it turns out that a Doctors Without Borders set-up or a village somehow changed places with them...
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04/13/us-drops-largest-non-nuclear-bom...
So I suppose they aren't funding this particular group of 'rebels' at the moment? Or just wanted to stop for a while? Or Trump thought this would be a
greatgrate big bang to scare some other country cooperative? I hope they just did hit terrorists... but a bomb that big would get quite a large area, I'd think...Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Even if it didn't explode
it would kill somebody.
@Linda Wood
Yup... but I fear that something that size exploding could take out a whole village. One trying to raise children of course, if you'll pardon the Mad Bomber reference, since Her's still got Her security clearance, despite not having held public office for how long? and apparently Her nose - warts and all - in such matters as killing for cash, although I don't know if Her benefits financially under the current circs if Her Turn isn't intended to be next again and as matter of Homeland Security, this time. Assuming that North America is still here and inhabited by humans by the next Presidential election, that is.
The demonstrated eagerness to kill almost anyone/everyone/everything living on the planet is incomprehensible us non-psychopaths... why we don't get the big bucks, I suppose.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
It's blast radius is one mile
Don't worry about civilian casualties. If there were any women and children in the area, there won't be any recognizable body parts to count. It also saves on body bags and funeral expenses.
@CB
Oh, great, they won't even count. Not that they likely would anyway... 1 mile radius - totes necessary for a 'hardened shelter'?
The Psychopath Class being the worst terrorists on Earth and all, it would surely be OK for other, attacked-on-pretense-of terrorists-in-the-country countries to bomb their homes, right? Or just use a missile or 50? (Wouldn't really advocate that, obviously; just makes for a nice theoretical scene to take my mind off of the citizens this sort of thing is being inflicted on. Or would, if it worked...)
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
In 2007 Pelosi was upset with anti-war protestors
demonstrating in front of her house, demanding action from the Democratic majority.
https://yedies.blogspot.de/2007/10/please-no-more-buddhas-on-pelosis-law...
@lotlizard
Thanks! Yes, I remember that, and was at the time deeply impressed with the imprint of her boot on the lives and rights of humanity. Seem to vaguely recall being gently chided over a snarky comment I made about that at TOP...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
At least it's not a barrel bomb
Moderate rebels? Moderate rebels? Say what?
Was this Al-Qaeda or Al-Nusra? Please give us the names so we can apologize.
The SDF, or
Syrian Democratic Forces, may be the forces actually doing the effective ground fighting against ISIS, and hence may be the good guys. From Alex Ocana:
? US wants regime change but
won't allow Syrians to accomplish their own regime change. O, I see, the changers have to be selected by the US. In the meantime, there won't be much of a regime left to change as the landscape is continually pummelled with bombs. But the people can escape as refugees and the US will welcome them, oh wait, they are not welcome in the US after they flee from US bombs. That's just me, I don't understand foreign affairs as conducted by the USA.
To thine own self be true.
@MarilynW
That's because they make what's none of their business in other people's countries into a lucrative business proposition to benefit their benefactors and term it 'foreign policy' rather than armed robbery. They don't 'speaka da English' but speak of evil in coded confusion. And even have the nerve to, when 'public positioned optics' are called for, to term themselves 'Liberals' and 'Progressives' when they aren't proudly, if absent-mindedly, calling themselves 'capitalists', meaning 'thuggish thieves' in code.
Is there enough room on this site for me to tell you how I really feel?
Edit: probably not, if I only notice a typo-ed letter (practically every time!) after posting and while waiting for the comment to post...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.