A 79-member coalition?
During all of this MIC-inspired outrage over the idea of withdrawing our troops from our illegal invasion of Syria, I've seen a phrase used for the very first time in the 4+ years of war.
The 79-Member global coalition to defeat ISIS is an unprecedented collection of nations aligned in a common counterterrorism cause.
79 members??? That's the first time I've heard that term.
Who are these members that we are "betraying"?
For starter, they include non-nation members:
Arab League
Community of Sahel-Saharan States
Interpol
NATO
The European Union
I'm sure that the armies of Djibouti, Fiji, and Latvia are full of dedicated people, but let's keep this in perspective.
The real joke is the low bar it takes to being a member of this coalition.
But the bar for inclusion is apparently fairly low. Although many countries have pledged military or humanitarian support, the State Department indicates that simply "exposing ISIL’s true nature" can qualify a nation for the coalition.
Right. So nearly all of our "allies" won't be affected in any way by our withdrawal.
France has 1,100 troops in Syria, plus an unknown number of British troops.
To get a better idea of the size of commitment of our coalition allies, let's look at airstrikes from a few years ago.
The Air Force has carried out around 60 percent of the 16,000 total strikes against IS forces. The remaining 40 percent has been carried out by the US Navy and allied nations.
Notice how the US Navy is lumped in with "allied nations".
Another example is the assault on Raqqa.
According to Airwars, an independent research group monitoring the anti-ISIS conflicts in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. was responsible for about 95 percent of the airstrikes and all of the artillery barrages in Raqqa. The U.K. and France also participated in the offensive.
The U.K. and France should get a participation award then. Sheesh.
This 79-member coalition is a joke.
Speaking of hype, consider the hysterical freak-out by Fox and Friends over the size and strength of ISIS.
“Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade on Friday said President Trump had "re-founded ISIS" and was giving Russia "a big win" with his decision to pull U.S. troops from Syria.
...
Sanders said that U.S. forces have “wiped out 99 percent of ISIS in Syria.”Kilmeade responded that the “word on the ground” among U.S. military is different from what the White House claims.
Really? What exactly is "word on the ground"?
ISIS still holds onto some rural villages scattered across the Middle Euphrates River Valley, where the terrorist group has shown some resiliency in launching large-scale counteroffensives.Trump’s tweet came several days after U.S. partner forces liberated the last urban ISIS stronghold of Hajin, Syria, following months of coalition air and artillery support.
ISIS has been pushed out of every single city in Syria and Iraq.
Their caliphate is no more. Trump's 99% claim is correct.
If the armies of Iraq and Syria can't destroy the remnants of ISIS without us, then we will literally never be able to leave Syria.
Now, one last bit of hysteria.
“We are now abandoning the Kurds who are about three weeks away from total slaughter,” Kilmeade said.
What orifice did Kilmeade pull that one from?
Of course TOP suddenly became fans of Fox and Friends. They have no moral foundations.
Comments
We're all overthinking this.
Trump is a simple man. More specifically a simpleton. He likes gold plated toilets, fast food, and screwing beautiful women. He likes it when people cheer for him, and throws a tantrum when someone criticizes him.
And he's an old man facing spending the rest of his life in jail without any of the things he likes ever again. His only hope of staying out of jail is to stay in the White House.
So what happened to set all this off?
Nancy Pelosi won an argument. Which made Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter say mean things about him.
Which means his numbers among Republican voters are at risk. Which is the only thing keeping him out of jail.
The simpleton panics.
He'll shut down the government to build the Wall(tm). He'll pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan, which he campaigned on. These are all things he can unilaterally do to appeal to the Republican base and boost his poll numbers for a week, and there is no other reason. Mattis stormed down to the White House to straighten out the petulant man-child and got tossed out on his ass.
There's no grand strategy, no 11 dimensional chess. It's a sad old man facing the end of his life, totally over his head and without allies, lashing out in all directions in desperation.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
True but t doesn't change the fact that
getting out of Syria is the right thing to do and the fact that we never should have been there in the first place.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
None of that is what triggered him.
I suspect it's your own mind you're reading.
The "J" stands for "Joker"
[video::https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1xrzWEVvMU]
"I just DO things"
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
Moon of Alabama thoughts
First Fallout Of Trump's Decision To Withdraw From Syria
This is interesting
Trump has a choice to make
Fall back into line, or forget about a second term.
I don't think Trump will get a 2nd term no matter what he does anyway.
I am not sure that a second term for Trump
is predicated upon his staying in Syria if it is up to the voters. The Republican party may decide to dump him or he may go down on other issues, but pulling troops out of a war will not be a big negative with voters.
Trump is a lot of disgusting things, but I do not believe he is unintelligent. And that does not mean I agree with most of the things he does, but I do believe most of us underestimate him.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
"if it is up to the voters"
I didn't mean to imply that it was up to the voters.
Actually, I thought so
but I was clarifying for those who may not know.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I saw this video, some time late in the 2016 campaign
, It's 27 minutes of Trump TV interviews. Yeah, I know, that sounds like a whole lot of fun! But it's educational...you at least get to see what Trump was like, how he combed his hair, what he was saying, HOW he said it, from 1980 through 2015. It's not the Trump we see today.
Granted, it's carefully edited...and staged. You could say it is fake, but it's not as fake as what we are seeing today. The guy is not an idiot...he's a snake oil salesman, and a professional wrestler, and fairly good at it. He's no dummy. Some of his 'views' have obviously changed, to fit his new role. He plays to his audience, says what they want to hear. (I heard two very clear statements of 'big league'.) He factually destroys Obamacare.
His tone, his manner, his words are different, today. We're watching him play the role of "the Heel". Republican voters eat it up. I'll leave it up to you to decide if his opponent is willingly playing "the Face". But we are definitely being played to.
[video:https://youtu.be/sgks1Uf4-mc]
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Trump can't staff second term
Trump can't have a second term because he wouldn't be able to staff it!
I will be surprised if he makes the first all the way through, but by then it will be career suicide to jump on the crazy train. 
But I guess there is a sycophant born every second...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Trump has directly thumbed his nose
at the Deep State and its minions in Congress and the media. They are all showing themselves for what they are...beholding to the Deep State and the war machine.
BTW, both snoopydawg and I linked Moon of Alabama's column from yesterday here in two other essays.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I read somewhere (senior moment- can’t
remember where) that this is all due to the fact that Trump understands that RUSSIA’s!!! economy is thriving and a major player strategically and economically and China is growing, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.
There’s two great articles on RT (very short) about the major kerfluffle over Trump’s withdrawal from Syria.
I can understand all the hissy fits coming from the ‘right’ but all the pissing and moaning that is coming from the ‘professional’ left is rather telling and off-putting. What it says is they’ll stoop to anything, even objecting to a withdrawall from a bloody battlefield, insist on fighting a lost cause, and to continue killing thousands and thousands of innocent people because TRUMP!!!
One good thing could come out of this. If the plebs are really against all this constant death and destruction, maybe there will finally be a (long overdue) end to the political career of some of these opportunistic warmongers, **hint hint**,
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
These withdrawls are late in coming
...but they are very specific promises that he made at most of his campaign rallies.
Most of the complaints that I've heard from disappointed Trump voters are about his failure to make good on this promise. He had explained that the money that is recouped by ending these wasteful wars will allow him to invest in America's infrastructure. Another promise he made.
So I imagine there is an unpolled demographic that is very happy about this. These constituents will never be heard from. This is a forbidden attitude in the US.
Why he executed that policy now is another matter.
Amanda, I appreciate the points you made in your comment. Those excerpts you included put it in the geopolitical context that is actually playing out.
Notice whose's absent from the list of the 79?
Yeah, Russia, Syria, Iran, and China. These countries have given blood and substantial assets to fight ISIS. Notice who is on the list- Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel, the UK, France and the US, the biggest sponsors of terrorism and the creators of the conditions needed breed terrorism in the Middle East. George W. Bush, his dad and their Saudi sole-mates are the greatest cause of terrorism in the ME. Just think about stability before and after, and add into that the lives lost. Notice that the US manages to replaces "shame" with "coalition", mostly bought. Fortunately Syria will become whole again thanks to the efforts of the first four countries mentioned and Hezbollah. Will the West award them medals? Yeah right.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Bingo
It's been Russian and Syrian forces that have been fighting ISIS while first Obama did nothing as their numbers grew and then FUKUS has been threatening them if they dared bomb them in Idib or if they went after the White Helmets.
During Obama's tenure he watched convoys of up to 500 tankers drove towards Turkey to sell Syrian oil to Israel. After Putin publicly showed him satellite photos of them Obama finally bombed a few, but said that he was worried about civilian casualties.
Kerry testified to congress that the Saudis "were paying us big money" to overthrow Assad so that they could build their oil pipelines.
As to people who say that Trump just gave Syria to Russia hasn't Russia had a naval base in Syria for a long time? And after we killed 200 or more of Russian contractors and they lost a few jets, etc, I'm thinking that once ISIS is really defeated they will be more than happy to go home.
Finally why are people forgetting that Bolton and Mattis and company have stated that even after ISIS is defeated they want to stay indefinitely to counter Iran? Just like when we went into Afghanistan to "get Osama we changed the mission to fighting the Taliban. As I've been tweeting as often as I can I wish people would get more upset when we send the troops somewhere as they do when someone wants to bring them home.
ps... notice how many people are saying that we can't leave because it will affect our interests. As in the oil and gas industry's interests. Not ours who gets to pay for it. Let them start paying for their own wars and supplying their own troops. Oh wait, that might look like a war crime. Better just stop the wars. Well I can dream too.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
^^^
Well said.
I feel there is a huge number of people in this nation who match that description. We need to find them and somehow unite them. They are the Americans who have never had representation in the US government. No voice. No presence. No recognition. No political party.
I saw them for awhile during the 2016 primaries. I was amazed and surprised. And then they melted away again. Prossibly forever.
They are the unaffiliated non-active American Left.
The term "our interests"
is specifically a term of neoliberalism. "Our interests" are not the interests of the general populace, but are the interests of the globalist cabal.
Excellent comment!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Chaos
from here:
First a tweet by someone named "Jeremy Scahill"
Then this comment by "Jerome Steele", referring to the potential chaos engendered by Trump's abrupt troop withdrawls...
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
we got a 79 member coalition right here!
79 member coalition!?! LOL We can get that here!
How come I get the sneakin' feeling this 79 is just like 17 intelligence agencies? And the Iraq war will pay for itself.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
sorry - wrong button
sorry, wrong button... can't seem to make it go away... oops.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Next thing you know, they’ll be going full “Russell’s paradox”
by listing the “coalition” as a member of itself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_paradox
Many a coalition or consensus cobbled together by Washington D.C. seems to be modelled after Jorge Luis Borges’s Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge.
Members of such a coalition or consensus can be divided into 14 categories: