Messages In This Digest (4 Messages)
- 1.
- Syria: A Precursor To War From: Rick Rozoff
- 2.
- U.S. Reconstructs Former Military Bases Across Asia-Pacific From: Rick Rozoff
- 3.
- NATO: What's In A Name? From: Rick Rozoff
- 4.
- Pakistan and the Emerging Geo-Political Scenario From: Rick Rozoff
Messages
- 1.
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Syria: A Precursor To War
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:23 pm (PDT)
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_ 06_25/79181037/
Voice of Russia
June 25, 2012
A precursor to war: Syria
John Robles
Despite all of the efforts of the UN and Russia and other countries that have influence in the region, the West continues to do anything and everything that it can to facilitate and provoke an invasion of Syria, and it is clear that those beating the drums of war have no interest in the untold number of lives that will be snuffed out by the hell they are preparing to unleash on the people of Syria, who are already suffering, nor on the very distinct possibility that it will ignite a larger violent conflict in the region.
If you have been following the news I am sure that you have heard by now that over the weekend a Turkish F-4 Phantom Fighter was shot down over the territory of Syria. At first Turkey reported that the aircraft was flying in international waters and almost immediately called for an emergency NATO session under article 4. As Turkey is a NATO member it does have that right to do so. Article 4 states that member countries must meet, “whenever the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened.”
So here we have it, what anyone who has been watching the situation in Syria has been waiting for: the perfect pretext for a Syrian “no fly zone, humanitarian intervention” invasion. Again directed from Washington, carried out by its surrogate NATO, and taking place on the Eurasian continent.
The war drums are beating once again, and even though Turkey has now admitted the fighter “strayed” into Syrian airspace, and the wreckage has been found on the bed of the Mediterranean, in Syrian waters at a depth of 1,300 meters, there is no talk of cancelling their call for talks on NATO involvement.
While the Western media are full of reports blaming Syria and the like, no one thinks to question why in such a volatile area and under the current circumstances Turkey would send, or even allow, their fighter aircraft into the area and then allow it fly into Syrian air-space.
Provocation: pure and simple. And the timing could not be more perfect, coming on the heels of developments that undermine the plans of the North Atlantic Alliance. The first being the Syrian government pledging to follow the peace plan drawn up by Kofi Annan and the another being the inclusion of the opposition in the new cabinet and government formed after the country’s first multiparty elections which were held on May the 7th.
This also comes on the heels of reports and the materialization of evidence that the CIA and the West are funding and arming the Syrian “rebels” and a failed propaganda attempt by Hillary Clinton to provoke Russia and again give a reason for military intervention in Syria.
The playbook is the same and follows the script for complete and total global domination that was drawn up by the Project for the New American Century before the events of 9-11, an event which served as the catalyst for all of the wars we are living through today and which has pulled the world into an endless global war against phantom enemies.
First there are accusations of human rights abuses, mass killings, weapons of mass destruction, acts of aggression etc., then reports of the necessity to intervene, after which complete obliteration and destruction of the target country, massive casualties and then control of resources, the members of the new ruling class, and massive profits from reconstruction and resource control.
We have seen the same thing before with NATO and the U.S.: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Kosovo; it is a formula they seem to have stuck to because so far they have gone unpunished for what in fact are crimes against humanity. Yes, waging a war of aggression is a crime against humanity. Even if it is a “preventive” war as the US loves to go around labeling its bloody criminal killing enterprises.
There are always accusations of terrible crimes and violence that must not go unpunished by what in fact are the worst out-of-control killers, killing thousands and destroying countries to make them exploitable, in what must be called one the worst crimes against humanity that can be committed, and they do so based on lies and through media manipulation. They have grown so emboldened that they do so regularly and will say anything at all, now without even the need for proof or backing evidence.
Take Hillary Clinton’s recent accusations against Russia, accusing it of selling attack helicopters to Syria, when in fact under old contracts it was selling and servicing what are largely transport helicopters, which of course could be outfitted with guns. We could say the same thing about the US if a terrorist uses an American car, fills it with explosives and blows it up. We could say the US is supplying terrorists with exploding cars. Ridiculous, and for comments like this to be made by the Secretary of State and then for redactions to be made when they are immediately seen for the lie they are would have been an unforgiveable disgrace before 9-11.
Now they are emboldened, running amok and out of control, making statements and fabrications so obvious and so unbelievable to back up their killing machine that it seems an effort in futility to try to counter such an assault on humanity.
For that is what it is, an assault on humanity, on every thinking, breathing, feeling and conscious being on the planet. When one country is allowed to kill at will, a country with a president who laughs that he has a daily assassination list he signs off on, the world must pull together and cut off the head of the beast even it is the Hydra.
We must not sit idly by while they invade yet another sovereign nation on false evidence; any country that does so even once must be stripped of its weapons and of any right to wage war.
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- 2.
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U.S. Reconstructs Former Military Bases Across Asia-Pacific
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:40 pm (PDT)
http://news.antiwar.com/ 2012/06/23/ us-reconstructs- former-military- bases-across- asia-pacific/
[With hyperlinks and graphic at URL above]
Antiwar.com
June 23, 2012
US Reconstructs Former Military Bases Across Asia-Pacific
Posted By John Glaser
The Obama administration is continuing its strategic pivot to Asia-Pacific and now trying to cultivate renewed relationships with countries in a bid to further expand the amount of US military bases throughout the region.
Much of this means rebuilding and refurbishing former US bases that were abandoned since WWII or since the Vietnam War. Administration officials have been in intense talks with the Thai government over using airfields and naval ports and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently visited Vietnam to visit the naval and air base at Cam Ranh Bay.
The Obama administration has been ramping up the pressure on China with an increasingly antagonistic foreign policy. The so-called ‘Asia pivot’ is an aggressive policy that involves surging American military presence throughout the region – in the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Guam, South Korea, Singapore, etc. – in an unprovoked scheme to contain rising Chinese economic and military influence.
The US has also been refurbishing long-abandoned World War II bases scattered across the Pacific for potential use in the event of a major conflict with China. Last month, US Marines rebuilt and restored the 8,000-foot runway at the abandoned North Field air base on the island of Tinian and engaged in a military exercise with nearby US forces based in Guam. The Tinian airbase is where the B-29s that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took off from in 1945.
The idea is to have enough U.S. bases peppered throughout the region so that China would be too surrounded to safely attack. “Doing so would make it more difficult for China to wipe out entire squadrons sitting on the ground with surprise attacks from its long range ballistic missiles,” according to reports from Military.com.
This bellicose posture has increased tensions between the U.S. and China and between China and its weaker neighbors, like the Philippines. A recent report from the Center for Strategic International Studies predicted that next year “could see a shift in Chinese foreign policy based on the new leadership’s judgment that it must respond to a U.S. strategy that seeks to prevent China’s reemergence as a great power.”
“Signs of a potential harsh reaction are already detectable,” the report said. “The US Asia pivot has triggered an outpouring of anti-American sentiment in China that will increase pressure on China’s incoming leadership to stand up to the United States. Nationalistic voices are calling for military countermeasures to the bolstering of America’s military posture in the region and the new US defense strategic guidelines.”
===================== ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= ==
Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
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- 3.
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NATO: What's In A Name?
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Mon Jun 25, 2012 6:05 am (PDT)
http://www.occuworld.org/news/ 54365
OccuWorld
Global Occupy News
June 25, 2012
NATO: What's in a name?
By ‘Snake’ Arbusto
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has now expanded to include South America. And into countries with no Atlantic coast at all, let alone on the North Atlantic. Unless you count the Caribbean...
Rick Rozoff, in a post entitled "NATO Expands Military Network To All Continents," reports on the recent Strategic Military Partnership Conference held in Zagreb and reveals that:
The South American nation(s) were not identified, but NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, recently identified El Salvador in Central America and Colombia in South America, respectively, as current and future NATO partners and troop contributors...
Of course, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are members of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, a NATO partner. And Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Tunisia (and soon, possibly, Libya) are members of the Mediterranean Dialogue, also a NATO partner. None of them have an Atlantic coast either. And Admiral Stavridis, Rozoff reports, also told Congress in March that Brazil and India also were potential NATO partnership states. India?
Rozoff points out that the inclusion of South America marks the crossing of a new threshold for NATO: It now has members and partners on all six inhabited continents, accounting for over a third of the nations in the world.
NATO's name is likely to become something of a PR handicap if it continues this expansion. We hereby launch a challenge to our many readers: come up with a new name to fit the existing acronym. A friend has already jokingly suggested "New American Terrorism Overseas," but of course he was engaging in irony. We all know that NATO is an international organization, that its purpose is peace and the protection of civilian populations, and that it is not in the business of advancing the cause of US foreign policy and arms sales for US manufacturers...Though we have to admit that there is at least a hint of that in NATO's language: As NATO has remarked of the Connected Forces Initiative, it is "aimed at ensuring that NATO retains and builds on the valuable gains of interoperability among Allies and partners as a result of NATO’s recent operations."
Still, Rozoff's article should be read by anyone who finds it curious that NATO even continues to exist, let alone expand. And everyone with a nervous system capable of engaging with the outside world should read his last paragraph:
The steady expansion of NATO military partnerships and operations around the world, which now include all populated continents, has no precedent in history. This is the first attempt to establish an international military alliance that is capable of and prepared to intervene in any nation and region it chooses to for the geopolitical benefit of its leading member states.
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Stop NATO e-mail list home page with archives and search engine:
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- 4.
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Pakistan and the Emerging Geo-Political Scenario
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:24 am (PDT)
http://rickrozoff.wordpress. com/2012/ 06/25/pakistan- and-the-emerging -geo-political- scenario/
Pakistan and the Emerging Geo-political Scenario
Sajjad Shaukat
====
[R]apidly developing geo-political differences among global powers in Asia show that the next Cold War is likely to be waged between the Russia-China alliance and the U.S.-led bloc in Asia, while Pakistan has already become its arena. Hence, U.S.-backed infiltration of militants from Afghanistan and unrest continues unabated in our country.
Pakistan...has a strategic geo-political location at the corridor of major world maritime oil supply lines, and has close proximity to oil-rich Central Asian countries. Pakistan’s location could influences Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East. So, Pakistan is the focus of attention in the wake of the emerging geo-political scenario.
====
We are living in a world where shifts occur in international politics from time to time, depending on the relationship of big countries. Now, a new geo-political scenario is emerging rapidly in the world, focusing on Afghanistan, while Pakistan has become a special arena of the major countries’ rivalries.
Although leaders of all the concerned countries express cooperation among themselves, emphasising stability in Afghanistan, in various summits and conferences held in recent years, yet all are preparing for the new Cold War which the U.S. intends to initiate against China and Russia.
In this respect, during his Asian visit, on June 2 of this year U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta disclosed in Singapore, “The United States will shift a majority of its warships to the Asia-Pacific region by 2020” as part of a new U.S. military strategy in Asia. Panetta’s Asian visit came at a time of renewed tension over claims in the South China Sea between China and the Philippines, a major U.S. ally. Besides, the U.S. also backs other countries like Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia by opposing China’s legitimate claim.
During his trip to Australia on November 17, 2011, President Barack Obama, while sending an unmistakable message to Beijing, said, “The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay,” and that he would send military aircraft and Marines to Australia to a training hub to help allies and to protect U.S. interests across Asia. Obama stressed that any reductions in America’s defense spending will not come at the expense of that goal.
Besides some other countries, America has also troops and security relationships with New Zealand and some Gulf countries. Disagreements also exist between Washington and Beijing over the Taiwan issue. American strategic thinkers take China’s military modernisation as a great threat to its military bases in the continent.
At the same time Russia opposes U.S. intentions to deploy a national missile defence system (NMD) in Europe and the expansion of NATO towards Eastern Europe. Against this backdrop, Russian President Putin has openly stated that his country was returning to its Soviet era practices.
Russia, on January 18, 2012 rejected the tough U.S.-led Western strategy of sanctions over Iran and Syria. In this regard, on February of this year Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling on the Syrian president to step down. Both Moscow and Beijing had also opposed the U.S.-led NATO attack on Libya, while they have asked the U.S. to resolve the question of Iran’s nuclear programme peacefully. But America and Israel are still acting on a war-like diplomacy against Tehran.
Notably, old NATO ally Turkey also changed its policy. Now, by supporting the cause of Palestinians, Ankara is increasing trade with Iran, meaning not to comply with sanctions against Tehran. In keeping with the new emerging geo-political scenario in the world, Pakistan is also strengthening its ties with Turkey.
Since May 2, 2011 tensions already existed in Pakistani-U.S. ties when U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden, and the same received a greater blow with the November 26 incident which killed 24 soldiers on Pakistani Army outposts. In response, Pakistan blocked NATO supplies to Afghanistan and closed the Shamsi Airbase. Finally, Islamabad decided to reassess its engagement with the U.S. It also rejected American duress in relation to the IP gas pipeline project with Iran, and is no more interested in the U.S.-supported gas pipeline project, Turkmenistan- Afghanistan- Pakistan (TAP).
Taking note of U.S. anti-Pakistan plans, besides China, Pakistan has also cultivated its relationship with the Russian Federation. Moscow and Islamabad agreed to enhance bilateral relations in diverse fields. In 2010, the then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed Pakistan's bid to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which includes the former Central Asian republics as permenent members. Putin also remarked that Pakistan was a very important partner in South Asia and the Muslim world for Russia.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari participated in the 12th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization recently held in Beijing. While addressing the summit, hinting out towards U.S. secret designs, Chinese president Hu Jintao said, “The international situation has been complex, thus bringing many uncertainties to the regional situation." He explained that only when SCO member states remain united can they effectively cope with emerging challenges. President Putin said, “The SCO should enhance security cooperation.”
After the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan in 2014, the U.S. has decided to establish six military bases in that country, having eyes on the energy resources of Central Asia, with multiple strategic aims against Pakistan, China, Iran and Russia.
Meanwhile, during his recent visit to New Delhi and Kabul, by way of reviving the old blame game U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta allegedly remarked that drone attacks would continue on terrorists’ safe havens which Pakistan “offers to insurgents in Afghanistan.”
Leon Panetta also encouraged India to take a more active role in Afghanistan in training Afghan forces. India, which has already invested billion of dollars in Afghanistan, signed a wide-ranging strategic agreement with that country on October 5, 2011.
In fact, it is due to Pakistan’s province of Balochistan, where China has invested billion of dollars to develop the Gwadar seaport which could link Central Asian trade with rest of the world, that the U.S. and India are irritated. America, which signed a nuclear deal with India, has been providing New Delhi with sophisticated defence-related arms to make it a great Asian power to counterbalance China, control Balochistan and subdue Iran. For these purposes, the American CIA, Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad have been supporting subversive acts in various places in Pakistan and separatism in Balochistan besides backing similar actions in the Iranian Sistan-Baluchistan and the Tibetan region of China.
At this delicate hour, when Pakistan’s diplomats were negotiating the complex issue of resumption of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan with America, and no breakthrough occurred, drone attacks killed more than 50 people in FATA. This action is part of the anti-Pakistan campaign.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar reiterated that seeking an apology from the U.S. on the Salala incident is essential for resuming NATO supplies. But top U.S. officials refused to tender an apology. Pakistan’s civil and military leaders remain firm on their stand that the issue of NATO supply lines would be decided in light of parliamentary guidelines.
However, rapidly developing geo-political differences among global powers in Asia show that the next Cold War is likely to be waged between the Russia-China alliance and the U.S.-led bloc in Asia, while Pakistan has already become its arena. Hence, U.S.-backed infiltration of militants from Afghanistan and unrest continues unabated in our country.
Pakistan is the only declared Islamic nuclear power. It has a strategic geo-political location at the corridor of major world maritime oil supply lines, and has close proximity to oil-rich Central Asian countries. Pakistan’s location could influences Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East. So, Pakistan is the focus of attention in the wake of the emerging geo-political scenario.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
