Entertaining a couple conspiracy theories
I don't know if either of these theories have any basis in fact, but at the same time I can't totally rule them out either.
“Not all missiles made their target,” says Dr. Theodore Karasik, a senior advisor to Gulf State Analytics. “There were supposed to be 60. One malfunctioned on one of the ships. 36 made target, the remainder did not. And, there’s a question of where did they go?”Dr. Karasik, a former senior political scientist in the International Policy and Security Group at RAND Corporation, spent the last decade in the Middle East and retains an extensive network in the region.
“The missing [missiles] were either brought down by S-300 battery or were taken over by Russian electronic jamming and were plunged into the sea,” explains Dr. Karasik. “Now, this alternative theory means that the US and Russia have already clashed if you will—technically—with the use of the TLAMs (Tomahawk missiles) and then being intercepted or taken over by Russian control.”
It's an interesting theory.
Most people are rightly focused on the political fallout of the strike. But we are overlooking the significant ineffectiveness of the strike.
We know that Russia has put a lot of anti-missile and anti-aircraft missiles in Syria.
We may not be prepared for a confrontation.
A cyberattack on the energy grid yesterday
A series of subsequent power outages in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City left commuters stranded and traffic backed up on Friday morning. Although the outages occurred around the same time, there is as of yet no evidence that they were connected by anything more than coincidence.The first outage occurred at around 7:20 a.m. in New York, when the power went down at the 7th Avenue and 53rd Street subway station, which sent a shockwave of significant delays out from the hub and into the rest of the subway system. By 11:30 a.m. the city’s MTA confirmed that generators were running again in the station, although the New York subways were set to run delayed into the afternoon.
Later in the morning, power outages were reported in Los Angeles International Airport, as well as in several other areas around the city.
The cause of the outage has not yet been made clear, though given the current geo-political climate it is not out of the question to suggest a cyber attack could be to blame.
OK, this is 100% speculation. There is no evidence at all of this being a cyberattack.
That being said, isn't it curious that we had multiple blackouts happening around the same time in multiple parts of the country?
Yes, probably just a coincidence. Still, it makes one go "Hmmm".
Comments
I recall hearing something about
…defensive missiles right after the recent attack. Those defensive missiles would have been in place for quite some time, installed back when Russia first entered Syria. Russia only had a few hours notice that the attack was going to take place. There was no follow-up news on this, nor was much attention focused of the "poor performance" of the Tomahawks. What we can be certain of is that the US is well aware of what happened to all the Tomahawks fired, which were monitored by the Navy's geostationary satellites. In the end, it could be more of a test of the Russian missile defense system than an attack on Syria.
As for the power outages, I never gave that a thought. You must be some sort of conspiracy theorist. Heh.
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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Speculation on Tomahawk Missile performance
Russia claims that only 23 of the 59 missiles fired reached the airbase. They are showing aerial drone views of the airfield after the strike. Not much to see, some craters and some damage. The airfield was open for business within 12 hours. I think that the issues not discussed in the media are far more important than the ones discussed. Here are some that I see. The US clearly took the least dangerous approach, stand-off missiles only, no manned aircraft. They chose a route that was far away from Russia's anti-aircraft infrastructure in Syria. The low flying Tomahawks should have never been seen by Russian radar. SO lets draw some (speculative) conclusions-
1) The US admits to de-facto air superiority of Russia in Syria.
2) The US admits that this was the only route of airstrike possible. Syria and Russia will now plug the gap. Clearly that was a one-time hostile breach of Syrian airspace, but that it was worth it for Trump.
3) We don't know if a)Tomahawk cruise missiles are massively unreliable and inaccurate, or b) Russia took them down with some currently unknown mechanism. I place equal probability of either, or both could be true.
4) The result of this was that Russia pulled back from the de-confliction protocol. This means that US planes now are subject to shoot-down if Syria or Russia interprets their flight path as potentially hostile. You must couple this possibility with the fact that US planes have shot and killed many Syrian assets multiple times in the recent past. This means that no benefit of doubt will be applied to radar images of paths of US warplanes. The US has not been placed in this type of risk for many decades. Our air operations depend on absolute air superiority and 0% loss of planes and crew.
Just one more thing. Russia will not let this rest. Trump will try to bribe Putin, promising some easing of the pressure placed by the West on Russia, but President Putin will have no part of this. He is well aware of the long history of the West trying to put Russian into a bottle. The missile attack was an aggressive military violation of international law. Even if the Syrian government used CW, which is in doubt, there is no legal justification for the US action. The Western "Coalition" represents about 15% of the world and most of the rest world will listen to reasoned argument, a bad outcome for the US.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
One article I read said that Russia didn't use their
missile defense system this time but will use them if it happens again.
As for this statement by The Wizard
This country has been using chemical weapons since the Vietnam war if not longer, but not one country or their leaders have condemned its actions.
Millions of gallons of agent orange was used on Vietnam and they used depleted uranium and white phosphorus during the Iraq war and are still using them in both Iraq and Syria. I would think that they used them in Libya too.
Birth defects are way up in Fallujah and time will tell how many there will be in other countries.
As usual the US is showing its hypocrisy.
How many dictators were removed for the same human rights violations that this country has committed.
As to the power outages who knows if it was a test or not? I won't be surprised by anything our government does.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Got the fatal error demon
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
More than likely, if the
More than likely, if the Syrians used the missiles, and they were that effective stopping the Tomahawks, then, we would hear of the successful limiting of our attack on their soil.
I also wonder how many of the missiles failed as they were sitting on those ships, collecting dust until used? Having worked with solid fuel missiles in my army career, if they sit long enough, the solid fuel cracks, making gaps which can make the engines have malfunctions. No wonder Raytheon was happy they got used, "Out with the old and defunct, In with fresh made and new" which will benefit Raytheon very nicely,,,,,UGH!
As for our power grid under cyber attack? what parts? considering how ancient some of that happens to be du8e to no investment in modernizing our infrastructure, the "Hack" would require a human hand pressing a fat button or yanking an old clever switch! So, most likely human agents close up and personal either intentionally(gov't), or a screw up where someone did not watch where they were sitting or going.
And for anyone who may have missed me, sorry for the low lurker profile, I had to rest up as my health can only handle so much of the political fuckery our nation seems to be okay with.
So long, and thanks for all the fish