@Alligator Ed
He's a Russian nut-job that has been labelled "Putin's brain". Contrary to western propaganda, Putin has never even met the man and history has proven he has never followed Dugin's advice. Some of his ideas are interesting but most are too far out in left field. I compare him to a rabid Russian neocon with religious fervor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Dugin

Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Ге́льевич Ду́гин; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian political scientist known for his fascist views[4][5][6] who calls to hasten the "end of times" with all out war.[7][8][9][10][11] He has close ties with the Kremlin and the Russian military,[12][13] having "served as an advisor to State Duma speaker Gennadiy Seleznyov[14] and key member of the ruling United Russia party Sergei Naryshkin.[15] However, commentators dispute his influence: in the words of journalist Alexander Nevzorov, "if we had had Sergey Kurginyan and Dugin instead of Putin, there would have been hell for all of us to pay, they would have unleashed a European and World War without a shadow of a doubt, without considering consequences at all."[16] But "Dugin and Kurginyan do not have the slightest impact on what is going on in the Kremlin and do not even get coaching there".[16] Dugin was the leading organizer of the National Bolshevik Party, National Bolshevik Front, and Eurasia Party. He is the author of more than 30 books, among them Foundations of Geopolitics (1997) and The Fourth Political Theory (2009).
...
Loss of department headship

During the conflict in Ukraine, Dugin also lost his post as Head of the Department of Sociology of International Relations of Moscow State University.[38][64] In 2014, a petition entitled "We demand the dismissal of MSU Sociology Faculty Professor A. G. Dugin!" was signed by over 10,000 people and sent to the MSU rector Viktor Sadovnichiy.[65] The petition was started after Dugin in an interview expressed his opinion on how to deal with Ukrainians ("Kill them, kill them, kill them. There should not be any more conversations. As a professor, I consider it so.").[66] Dugin claimed to have been fired from this post; the university claimed the offer of a department chairmanship resulted from a technical error and that he would remain a professor under contract until September 2014.[38] Dugin wrote the statement of resignation from the faculty because it was necessary to be reappointed to the Moscow State University, but the appointment did not happen, so as a result he is no longer a staff member of the faculty and a staff member of the Moscow State University.[21]
...

#6 The author proposes a three-sided power structure ruling the U.S., and by extension, lots of the globe. The general supposition is that this is the beginning of a series of escalating events in Syria which foreseeably might lead to WW3. Thus, only time will tell.

If we retreat, the war has all the chances of ending quickly and with minimal losses. but this would mean our surrender with all the consequences. Not to mention Crimea, which is ours only as long as we are ourselves. We only have to back up a step for our solipsistic picture to collapse.

I agree with the first part. But how is Crimea ours by any stretch of the imagination? Russia doesn't think so and have taken steps to prove that Crimea is not at our disposal. The Russians will not give up their main Black Sea port, their window to the Mediterranean. If they did, the country would shrivel and die--AND they know it as do we.

For my contrarian view (and I am not alone in this), it will be only a matter of weeks or 2 months before we find out. Watch for reactions from Putin, Assad, and even the feeble EU. For a useful weathervane at how things are going. If NYT and CNN are happy about what's going on then we are in deep trouble. When they start blasting Trump for being "too slow" to follow through, they will be mad--but the rest of us should feel relieved.

I still contend this action served to buy Trump time, mollify Neocons/deep state while waiting for Ricegate to start dragging down Deep State/Obama. If Congress (mainly the House) initiates hearing on Ricegate, powered by subpoenas and occurring under oath, then I will be more reassured as to which way this thing is going.

@thanatokephaloides

https://moraloutrage.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/why-the-u-s-interest-in-ye...

Why the U.S. interest in Yemen? Hint: Yemen is an Oil Chokepoint

The strategic significance of the region between Yemen and Somalia is a point of geopolitical interest.

It is the site of Bab el-Mandab, one of what the US Government lists as seven strategic world oil shipping chokepoints. The US Government Energy Information Agency states that “closure of the Bab el-Mandab could keep tankers from the Persian Gulf from reaching the Suez Canal/Sumed pipeline complex, diverting them around the southern tip of Africa. The Strait of Bab el-Mandab is a chokepoint between the horn of Africa and the Middle East, and a strategic link between the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean.”

Oil and other exports from the Persian Gulf must pass through Bab el-Mandab before entering the Suez Canal. In 2006, the Energy Department in Washington reported that an estimated 3.3 million barrels a day of oil flowed through this narrow waterway to Europe, the United States, and Asia.

An excuse for a US or NATO militarization of the waters around Bab el-Mandab would give Washington another major link in its pursuit of control of the seven most critical oil chokepoints around the world, a major part of any future US strategy aimed at denying oil flows to China, the EU or any region or country that opposes US policy.

Given that significant flows of Saudi oil pass through Bab el-Mandab, a US military control there would serve to deter the Saudi Kingdom from becoming serious about transacting future oil sales with China or others no longer in dollars, as was recently reported by UK Independent journalist Robert Fisk. It would also be in a position to threaten China’s oil transport from Port Sudan on the Red Sea just north of Bab el-Mandab, a major lifeline in China’s national energy needs.

In addition to its geopolitical position as a major global oil transit chokepoint, Yemen is reported to hold some of the world’s greatest untapped oil reserves. Perhaps there is more to Washington’s recent Yemen concern than a rag-tag al-Qaeda whose very existence as a global terror organization has been doubted by seasoned Islamic experts. ...

When they say they're 'bringing democracy' to the world, it's another example that words don't carry the same meaning for them... and neither does life itself.

#7

If there are no resources to exploit, there would be no death and destruction.

I wish that were true. It isn't.

For example, there are no resources in Yemen, but plenty of death and destruction going on there.....

@Alligator Ed @Alligator Ed

It does take a fair bot of skill to throw a Tomahawk.

I trust they didn't use the Boomerangs by mistake?

Edit: was going to fix a rather odd typo of what was supposed to be 'bit' above, but then realized that these would be tossed by a computerized program, making 'bot' rather appropriate, especially for the nation which has 17 spy agencies and what - thousands? - of private companies all busily spying on its own public in case someone powerful ever wants to 'adapt' something in their private conversation as an excuse for kidnapping them to be held incognito and indefinitely without trial - but possibly with torture used until the victims make up something the torturers think they can use to perhaps attack another country until they run out of fresh ones to ruin...

Lol, the US is so much worse than the old Soviets, how can anyone possibly think that pretending that they're still running Russia could possibly scare anyone?

#8 why > 60% of the Tomahawks failed. I would think this will call for some serious soul-searching (if war mongers can be said to possess such) as to why such a major failure like that occurred. It just wasn't due to navigational failure. And even if it were, why?