Even NYT Admits This Now.

So, now the ugly "secret" is outed in the open officially, by one of the most vocal enables of Syrian terrorists, The New York Times:

Observers reported heavy gunfire, mortar fire, car bombs and other explosions. Black smoke from burning tires rose above the city, evidently in an attempt to obscure the view of pilots flying Russian warplanes overhead. The new offensive was a strong sign that rebel groups vetted by the United States were continuing their tactical alliances with groups linked to Al Qaeda, rather than distancing themselves as Russia has demanded and the Americans have urged.

Russia has reserved the right to attack anyone working with the Qaeda-linked groups, saying there is little distinction between them. The rebels argue that they cannot afford to shun any potential allies while they are under fire, including well-armed and motivated jihadists, without more robust aid from their international backers.

The question I have at this point is this: who was responsible for this "vetting" of those groups in the US? CIA? OK, we all know what CIA does, I am sure they will, at some point, institute a professional CIA "love my Jihad" holiday, since CIA's pathological attraction to jihadists seems to be incurable. But, in the end, people, how about 9/11? Anyone still have any recollections about poor innocent people being incinerated in Twin Towers, anyone even remembers those killed in hijacked planes? Those, like me, who remember this atrocity inevitably have to ask this question, the only one which really matters in the end for those who still hold something sacred in their lives: where is morality in all that? I don't buy for a second this NYT narrative: see underlined bold in blue above. What Americans? The ones whom I know, and who are my friends and colleagues--they wouldn't even think for a second and would shoot first and ask questions later, if at all, once they would have recognized those groups as jihadist, let alone those groups having even a slightest chance of aligning with Al Qaeda or ISIS. These Americans, who are a majority, no doubt are decent and honorable people who wouldn't play games with Islamic terrorists. But if NYT suddenly, after leading a chorus of condemnation by "Western" presstitudes of Russia, who methodically was obliterating these so called "moderate rebels", changes tune and attaches "Americans" in this "narrative" to Russians, something did really happen. The question is: what? Let me speculate.

1. Even half-a-year ago it was absolutely clear that there are no "moderate rebels" (well, except those three or five ones on which Pentagon spent half-a-billion dollars) in Syria. Unicorns? Yes! "Moderate rebels"? No! So what "Americans" NYT is talking about? Here is a quote: 

Mr. Kerry has continued to reach out to Syrian rebel groups. A State Department spokesman, John Kirby, reiterated on Thursday the United States’ longstanding criticisms of Russia, saying that Moscow was pursuing a self-defeating strategy.

“If that’s their intention, to reduce Aleppo to rubble,” he said, “then they will do nothing more than encourage the opposition to keep fighting, make a cessation of hostilities all the more elusive if not impossible, and bolster the rise of extremism in Aleppo as well as prolong a war that should not be.”

So, those "Americans" are Mr. Kerry and a bunch of other State Dept and CIA enablers of jihadists whose only purpose at this stage is not to lose whatever is left of their public "persona", however pathetic, and, who knows, maybe, just maybe, not to get indicted as war criminals and supporters of terrorism down the road. After all,  in light of the latest news about HRC and her despicable circle, with FBI Director finally, for whatever reason, deciding to do what was needed to be done from the get go--investigate, we have another reality unfolding. 

2. Donald Trump DOES have a straight shot at US presidency now and some rats are leaving HRC's ship already under the constitutional crisis pretext, which, actually does have some merit. This, together with FBI Director's change of the position on HRC's e-mails testifies to the fact that, despite counter-claims from HRC's campaign that there is nothing to see there, things are, most likely, very serious for Hillary. This does have a direct impact on neocon/neolib/interventionist cabal which infested State Department and, under Hillary's guidance (that is when she had time free from taking bribes for her and Bill's Foundation) committed a whole host of real war crimes--from Libya to Syria. And this, boys and girls, is no joke. 

3. If Donald gets elected POTUS, and the probability of such an outcome rose significantly since the end of the last week, he will have to consider his own slogans and, especially the main of those "Make America Great Again". Here is a conundrum: making America great again IS impossible without total revision of US foreign policy, which is one of the major, in fact--defining, factors which brought good ole' USA to the edge of total economic bankruptcy, military-political defeat and decline--a courtesy of neocon Bacchanalia which now is in full swing in US since 1999. But it is on HRC's watch and with the help of her "cadres" that this cabal started the Unites States on the slippery slope towards the conflict with Russia with all what follows from this terrifying scenario. Somebody really got scared in D.C. and now somebody has to pay for such state of the affairs if Donald comes to power. I think Trump is well aware of what is going on and I think he does contemplate the purge of neocons from their cesspools in very many high places in US government. Together with crooks from Wall Street, this neocon mob is clear and present danger to the real interests of the United States the way they are formulated, even if in part, by possible next US President Donald Trump. Neolibcon mafia knows it, hence hysteria in media, who also are directly responsible in inflaming "exceptionalist" propaganda, war-time jingoism, dehumanizing peoples around the globe, cheering on terrorists by creating around them fairy tales of "moderation". All meanwhile the nation was being driven into the ground by forces for which the United States and majority of the Americans were and are nothing more than a kindle for the global inferno of "democratization". Trotskyism is alive and well in USA but it must be destroyed. Donald's victory in 2016 elections may not be the end of this scourge but it will be a good, solid first step in making American great again among the community of world's leading nations. In the end, Al Capone went behind bars not for his most despicable crimes but for tax evasion and this was good enough. Many neocons are war criminals and their place is behind bars.

    

Until THAT, ideology and a creature, which articulated it, is not eliminated from the US politics nothing good will come for the US. Luckily, more and more people are beginning to wake up to this reality and that gives me some hope. And the vengeance better be "in this life", not the next.   

                    

                                    VOTE TRUMP!!!      

 

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't-IV.

I was extremely busy this month (moving and other things) and I hardly had time to post much. But since Saker posted today this at UNZ Review, I decided that it is as good of a time as it will get to point attention to this:

Report proposes canceling U.S. aircraft carriers, investing in lasers to combat Russia and China.

Talk about the "blasphemy" on a grand scale, since these news made it not only to the pages of WaPo, but also to CNN. All this "blasphemy" originated in the Center For New American Security think-tank.  The report looks at several ways of optimization of Pentagon's budget (nothing new here) and uses some fairly familiar "Hi-Low" lingo: remember Zumwalt and Project 60? And views, as CNN reports: Despite cutting the Ford-class carrier program after only two of the four planned ships are complete, the three think-tank experts said their plan will ensure that the US still has 10 aircraft carriers by the end of the decade due to their 35-year lifespan, but that the carriers would take on new functions, acting as prepositioned operating bases around the world. 

The phrase which really caught my attention was this: Investing in the airwing gives aircraft carriers utility going forward, Hendrix said, noting that long-range strike aircraft would allow the carriers to sit out of range of Russian and Chinese anti-ship missiles.

This really makes one scratch one's head, trying to figure out what is missing in this picture. That, certainly, happened to me until I had my Eureka moment and referred myself to my own writing. Namely, and I quote myself, while giving some simple example: It starts with a simple realization of operational reality of Russia's Air Force, whose air superiority, air defense (intercept), strike, refueling and early warning assets are located exactly around both Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

American military thinkers, it seems, consistently forget to take into account that even if US Navy CBG(s) is (are) "prepositioned" in such a way that they can "sit out of range of Russian and Chinese anti-ship missiles", which in itself is a very difficult proposition to start with, their air-wings WILL encounter, in case of Russia (I will abstain from discussing China's capabilities), a very competent and numerically superior Air Force. Interestingly, those thinkers also forget that those Russian planes are long-range, all have refueling capability, and do have capability to launch a plethora of long-range anti-shipping missiles at CVN. From various iterations of high supersonic X-31 missiles to air-launched Brahmos, to sub-launched Kalibrs--the menu of weapons which can strike "prepositioned" CVN is very rich, to put it mildly. It is also very doubtful that deployment of US Navy's attack subs (SSNs) well within the ranges of Russian ASW aviation and SSKs, who are a very serious threat to any, even most advanced,  SSN, will be easy. 

       

  
It has to be understood that US Navy is "stuck" with its aircraft-carriers and operational concepts which follow--that is "power projection" against some third world hellholes where carriers don't have to deal with either serious air force, capable air defense or this ever-present problem of "leakers" (such as one, two or three 3M54) which can ruin the day by taking out AEGIS escorts. After that the fate of CVN will be unenviable. It is clear for any attentive observer (and people from CNAS do have some pedigree) that in the last 20 years the naval warfare paradigm changed dramatically and with it changed the role of carriers. Yes, they are great for power projection, as current deployment of venerable Admiral Kuznetsov into the Eastern Mediterranean shows. This old-timer, once his CBG reaches the station, will do some "power projecting", thus training its air-wing, including validation of combat capabilities of newest MiG-29Ks, will kill some terrorists and will demonstrate the flag. Some people will get combat awards and all this is fine with me. But in real war between serious nation-states, or alliances of those, neither Kuznetsov nor any Ford-class CVN have any chances of survival against determined,  competent and well armed adversary. 

A salvo of 8 or 10, let alone 12 or 16, 600-700 kilometers range, high supersonic anti-ship missiles from different directions is a problem which alone is a grave threat to any, even most advanced, surface combatant. When this problem is compounded with CBGs air-wings engaged in the air battle for own survival against aircraft and pilots who are as good, if not better, as those of air-wings, one has to ask a question which authors of CNAS' report ask implicitly and quite explicitly answer it--the age of those magnificent mammoths is over and no number of reshuffles of the outdated operational concepts will save them. The coming of hyper-sonic, long range weapons (and they are already here) overturns current fleet air-defense as we know it completely. And maybe the authors of this report do have a point when they propose to invest into lasers. After all, for Mach=6 ASM (that is 2000 + meters per second, or 2 kilometers per second) it would take somewhere between 15 to 20 seconds to cover the distance from where it, maybe, will be detected to the platform which will detect it. Good luck shooting it down, even more luck of shooting down the salvo of those.    

US Navy will continue to be forced, as it was in 1950s when US Navy found the role for carriers as reserve (secondary) nuclear strike platforms, time after time to grasp for sinking concepts in order to preserve its CVN Fleet's "power projection" capabilities, a lot of juicy captains' and admirals' positions and, of course, visuals, that is until the first salvo of a serious war is fired. Or, as late Scott Shuger, himself a carrier officer at some point of time, noted in his late 1980s piece: Even a 28-carrier fleet would not ensure the success of wartime operations involving carriers. The navy's scenarios for those operations are unrealistic. For example, theyfail to allow for degradation of carriers' defensive capabilities as hits accumulate, imperfect weather conditions, conflicts between the power projection and air defense missions,and potential changes in the composition of Soviet bomber and submarine forces.  
It goes without saying that since then, missile strike capabilities changed dramatically, if not in a revolutionary way, aircraft carriers--did not. And that is the problem for carriers and their operational concepts. As Commanders Gattuzo and Tanner, both--enormously experienced carrier aviators, noted: "Money spent furthering manned aircraft technologies and programs—the CVNX (proposed Nimitz-class carrier replacement) being one of them—is like polishing cannonballs so they will fly a little farther."         

To be continued....   

Poland's Defense Minister Lives On The Moon.

No really, Poland Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz', since him taking this important position, claims about Russia and her military are really worthy of monitoring by psychiatrist. His latest claim is that Egypt sold notorious ferries of Mistral-class to Russia for 1 dollar. I already wrote about how useless these ugly ferry-boats are for the Russian Navy and was very glad (and not me alone) that their delivery to Russian Navy ultimately failed. Egypt's Navy has gotten those ships and they better stay there, granted that Russia will supply two helicopter (KA-52) wings for both. But each time when you think that this pathetic Mistral saga has finally came to a close... bang! Macierewicz suddenly pops up as the Jack from the box and delivers his startling "revelations".

After all, according to him, Russia, apart from paying the whole... drum roll...one dollar for Mistrals,

      

also created and supports Islamic terrorism. Well, what can I say--the guy is a Defense Minister of a NATO country which tries desperately to feel very important and is dying for attention from her master across the Atlantic. If NATO wants such Defense Ministers to continue occupy important positions in the Alliance, it should really start thinking about opening HQs on the Moon, since it is the only appropriate place for lunatics such as Macierewicz to express their views. On the other hand, most of Western political "elite" today is in a hardly better mental state than Poland's Defense Minister. It is, however, a very good raison d'etre for European Space Agency, they may, at some point in the future, indeed, develop a viable program for the settlements on the Moon. But something tells me that even the most insane European politicians still sing like the real Man On The Moon Andy Kaufman did, if you know what I mean;-)

    

  ..........

Why? Oh, Why?

EU drops sanctions threat against Russia over Syria. Indeed, why? The answer is extremely simple, so, no use to read and listen to Euro-morons' justification of such a decision--in Syria Russia fights Islamic terrorism in all of its manifestations, from ISIS to Al Qaeda and its affiliate groups. Does any one want to impose sanctions on the only major power, which, together with Syrian Army, fights terrorism, thus exposing oneself as a supporter of terrorists? Even real supporters of terrorists such as France, who is culpable in creating a mayhem in the Middle East, and its pathetic President have enough brains not to do so. 

Reality of all those Western sanctions on Russia has been discussed in this blog on numerous occasions and it is safe to say that those sanctions really helped Russia to launch her re-industrialization program, granted that it still progresses not with the pace I, as one of Russia observers, would like to see. But still, it is ongoing. Truth is, Many European businesses hate anti-Russian sanctions and some are trying to find the way to bypass them, but, in general, these sanctions, together with widely spread anti-Russian (Russian "threat" et al) sentiment of Europeans is a reality on the ground in Europe and let Europeans deal with those. I see no tragedy, in fact, the opposite is true, in Russian manufacturers substituting European imports. Nor European public opinion matters as far as the historic geopolitical shift, which is occurring this very minute as I write it, goes. As I said, current "Europe" as a Europe is done. The facade is still there (in some places) but behind it--no life and no European culture is left. I thought it would have been very appropriate for Europe to slap another round of sanctions on Russia because of Syria--that would have been very entertaining. As General Gromov and Dmitry Rogozin summarized it in their "Russian Advice On Afghanistan" NYT article 6 years ago:

"In fact, we were the first to defend Western civilization against the attacks of Muslim fanatics. No one thanked us. On the contrary, everyone was impeding our actions: The United States, NATO, Iran, Pakistan, even China."

Europe can enjoy now the fruits of her policies. As per US, as of now, as I said many times before, it is a separate story. But as Russian proverb goes: Nasilno Mil Ne Budesh' (You can not make someone to like you), Europe chose her destinies herself. 

Oh, No! An "Accident".

Coincidence? Even if it is--it is a telling one. US so called "main stream media" is a sewer which helps bring US (and us) into the Orwellian reality of a "thought-crime",  "two minute hate" sessions and "being always at war with East Asia". US political class was always corrupt but this campaign, for the first time, exposed a catastrophic degree to which US media, political and public institutions, which once were marketed globally as the golden standard, are rotten to the core. 

Make your own conclusions.... Vote Trump--he might be our last chance.

Poor, Poor Dears.

In another step to oblivion, Sweden politician comes up with a wonderful plan--an integration of returning jihadists into Swedish society.  

Jihadi rehab: Swedish city plans free driver’s license, housing & tax perks for returning fighters 

I am sure this wonderful plan will work miracles of "integration". After all, those poor, poor jihadist dears need some down time after rape, pillage, murder of innocent civilians they committed in Syria--who wouldn't? This caught my attention:

Also an April, a report appearing in the Swedish media claimed that Islamists have successfully infiltrated Sweden’s Green Party. Lars Nicander from the Swedish National Defense University said there is “a very similar effect today, in which people close to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist party, are apparently gaining large footholds in the Green Party.”

And why I am not surprised when reading words "Green Party"? It immediately brings back memories of another "Green Party" coward and traitor--the mayor of Cologne, who blamed German rape victims (rapes committed by culturally "superior" Muslims).  Europe is done, but no normal nation will have a "Green Party" as a viable political force--all "greens" are well beyond the issues of environment, and even those are "radicalized" to the point of suicide--such as Germany's refusal of nuclear energy. Green movement today are all shills for globalism, obliteration of what's left of Western culture and are for the final triumph of multiculturalism, which will be the end of any of us who treasure traditional values. Greens are traitors to Western Civilization, which lives out its last days in Western Europe. Sad but cold hard fact. Europeans did it to themselves and they have only themselves to blame. My condolences--the cultural cancer has metastasized and even surgery is not a solution anymore.   

Mr. Obama, Russian Army Is Neither Second, First Nor Fifth In The World.

It is impossible to explain to Harvard lawyer that Russian Armed Forces are not interested in being ranked by anybody, as Obama tried to do in his press-conference, together with Italy's PM Renzi, remarks today. 

"We think that Russia is a large, important country with a military that is second only to ours and has to be a part of the solution on the world stage rather than part of the problem,"

Russian military is in the business of defending own country and as such has a track record without equals in the military history: from Teutonic Knights, Mongol--Tatars and Polish Invaders, to Napoleon and Hitler--these last two, accidentally, also loved to "rank" Russians. We all know how it all ended. For overwhelming majority of Russians war is not a joke and not a Hollywood movie--it is a historic reality spun over a millennium and ingrained in Russian cultural code. Russian Armed Forces have to be good at only one thing--destroying the enemy who tries to attack Russia proper and in her vicinity and in this business, as thousand year long history testifies, Russians are damn good at it. Probably, best in history. For some strange reason Russia simply does not like to be conquered, what a loser--doesn't Russia know about all benefits US "democratization" brings to people (I am being facetious, of course). Any "rankings" by anyone, be it POTUS, be it some "think tank" or some second rate journo from some faux-geopolitical rag--all of it is meaningless and reflects absolutely nothing as pertains to real military capabilities honed for achieving specific military-political goals, as stated in the military doctrine. Russia's Military Doctrine is explicitly defensive and does not, unlike it is with the US, define Russia as a "leader" or "global cop".  

Well, when speaking of Obama today, one has to bring his famous "Russia is a regional power" snafu and "Russia's economy in tatters" up. One has to, it is impossible to avoid it, especially against the background of voices within US who, however reluctantly and insincerely, begin to admit that basically they have no clue. Putting Russian Army in the 2nd, 5th, 1st or 21st place makes no difference for the cold hard fact of Russian Army today being able to conventionally defeat any opponent in her immediate vicinity. That is what Russian Army is designed for, that is how it is built. Russian sphere of vital interests is well defined and it is not global, it is, indeed, regional and, as Sergei Karaganov noted: "Russia will never again fight on her own territory". But these are capabilities which are characteristic of a superpower. Once the nuclear deterrent is added up here, the picture emerges of what Russians were longing for centuries--of the nation whose borders are untouchable. It also moves Russia into the status of whatever power label is in vogue today: super, pooper, hyper or great. But one is literally forced to ask Obama:"Mr. President, if Russia is a "regional" power, whose economy is in "tatters", how, then, this ever-declining power managed to built this military which is "second only to" US?" How does it work? Can Obama answer this question? I am sure his advisers will come up with something. 

But for the foreseeable future two things will remain the same--West "elites'" total ignorance of Russia and Russians and repetition of the mantra of US "providing global leadership" and with it running good ole' USA into the ground for the sake of narrow, greedy, cosmopolitan "elite" who has no loyalty to majority of the American people. Yet, this Obama's admission today is a stark indicator of lack of any serious foreign policy strategy for the US. It was on Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Obama's watch that United States officially has become a supporter of Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists. In this case, knowing whom Russia is dealing with today, it seems only natural for Russian Armed Forces to become, indeed, second to none in what they do--defend their own people. In this sense, Russian Armed Forces are on their way to become number one in that. After all, as Russian Emperor Alexander III succinctly observed: "Russia has only two allies--her army and her navy". And that is the essence of Russian history.