Israel must stop killing Palestinians! Israel openly stated their mission ended in Gaza with the closing of all the tunnels. Find more?

August 8, 2014

By Isabel Kershner and Jodi Rudoren

JERUSALEM — As a 72-hour truce (click here) in Gaza expired at 8 a.m. Friday, Palestinian militants fired barrages of rockets into Israel and the Israeli military responded with airstrikes, one of which killed a 10-year-old boy, according to relatives.The renewed hostilities interrupted the indirect talks in Cairo, brokered by Egypt and backed by the United States, for a more durable cease-fire agreement. While the rocket fire signaled Hamas’s refusal to extend the temporary lull and its desire to apply pressure for its demands to be met at the talks, the Israeli government said in a statement that “Israel will not hold negotiations under fire.”...

I think Hamas recognizes the word ceasefire rather than truce. They mean the same thing.

Hamas's demands for an end to the blockade is the linchpin. 

Israel has no reason to be killing Palestinians. It has completed it's ? mission ? of closing the tunnels and they need to simply stop the hostilities with Gaza and it's residents. That means the people have the right to live and develop an economy. 

Constraints on Agricultural Production (click here)

The loss of large stretches of agricultural land, after 1967, due to land confiscation and closures, and limitations on water supply and product markets, has led to a substantial decline in the production of this sector.

In 1967, Palestinian agricultural production was almost identical to Israel's: tomatoes, cucumbers and melons were roughly half of Israel's crop; plums and grape production were equal to Israel's; and Palestinian production of olives, dates and almonds was higher. At that time, the West Bank exported 80% of the entire vegetable crop it produced, and 45% of total fruit production (Hazboun, S., 1986).

The agricultural sector was hit hard after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Thereafter the sector,s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the Palestinian Occupied Territories declined. Between 1968/1970 and 1983/1985 the percentage of agricultural contribution to the overall GDP in the West Bank fell from 37.4-53.5% to 18.5-25.4% (UNCTAD, 1990). The labour force employed in this sector has also declined. Between 1969 and 1985, the agricultural labour force, as a percentage of the total labour force, fell from 46 to 27.4% (Kahan, D., 1987)....

...Marketing of farm products and their distribution to local and external markets is one of the major obstacles facing Palestinian farmers. Throughout the occupation years, selling Palestinian agricultural products within Israel requires special permits to be issued by the Israeli authorities. Transporting products from north to south in the West Bank has become difficult as well, especially after Israel enforced a closure on East Jerusalem, the main road connecting northern with southern parts of the West Bank. Movement of agricultural products between the West Bank and Gaza Strip is also subject to Israeli control....

The hoops the Palestinians have to go through to travel and/or trade their goods is hideous.

And they aren't even constituents.

August 8, 2014
By Nick O'Malley

...On Thursday afternoon, (click here) as Yazidi protesters gathered in front of the White House to call for US help, Obama met his national security advisers. It appears that what he learned in that meeting stirred him to act.

Advances by ISIL since the weekend left tens of thousands of Yazidi civilians besieged on Mount Sinjar.

Addressing the nation hours later, Obama said: “People are starving. And children are dying of thirst.  Meanwhile, ISIL forces below have called for the systematic destruction of the entire Yazidi people, which would constitute genocide.”...

Any demonstrators have connections to the USA military? "W"? Paid?

The Yazidi are not devil worshipers. They practice Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion which was adapted Zoroaster to simplify the spectrum of polytheism into gods of good and evil. The religion dates back to 2000 BCE. In this region of the world it came out of Iran and true to form it allows female leadership within the practice. Needless to say ISIS/ISIL are Sunnis and oppress women.

Zoroastrianism (click here) 

The Penatgon is so very cleaver. Psy-Ops at work again?

Zoroastrianism is arguably the world’s oldest monotheistic religion. It is centered on the words of the prophet Zoroaster and focuses worship upon Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom. It also acknowledges two competing principles representing good and evil: Spenta Mainyu (“Bounteous Spirit”) and Angra Mainyu (“Destructive Spirit”). Humans are intimately involved in this struggle, holding off chaos and destruction through active goodness.

Notable Zoroastrians

Freddie Mercury, the late lead singer of Queen, and actor Erick Avari are both Zoroastrians.

I suppose the peaceniks have to save their brethren, huh?

Psy-Ops should practice their meditation a little longer next time.

I congratulate Secretary Kerry for heading the next conflict off at the pass.

August 7, 2013
By Matthew Lee

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Afghanistan's (click here) feuding presidential candidates agreed Friday to resolve their election dispute and said they would set an inauguration date before the end of August.

The breakthrough came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened a second day of talks in Afghanistan aimed at preventing the fragile country from collapsing into political chaos after disputed elections.

"This is really an Afghan solution to an Afghan problem," Kerry said at a news conference. "Both parties have agreed to stay at it and both parties have agreed to live by the outcome."...

The Washington Post believes it is making a moral argument in remembrance of the Khmer Rouge.

August 7, 2014
By Adam Taylor

On Thursday, (click here) 83-year-old Khieu Samphan and 88-year-old Nuon Chea were found guilty in a Phnom Penh court. A United Nations-backed tribunal had decided that these two men, elderly and frail as they are now, committed crimes against humanity more than 30 years ago. They were senior members of a regime that created the deaths of almost 2 million people....

It is a very poor analogy at best. Does anyone know WHEN the Khmer Rouge grew to prominence in Cambodia?

In 1963, President Johnson put the first fighting force on the ground to work with the South Vietnamese to FORM their own military that could stand the onslaught of North Vietnam. Sound familiar?

The Khmer Rouge was formed in 1968 as an offshoot of the Vietnam People's Army from North Vietnam. It came to prominence as the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

When was the "Fall of Siagon?"  

April 29, 1975. 

Why did the Khmer Rouge form? Was it in response to the ever imposing force and rate of death noted in Vietnam? 

In 2003 a series of investigative reports by the Toledo Blade uncovered a large number of unreported American war crimes particularly from the Tiger Forceunit. Some of the most violent war criminals included men such as Sam Ybarra and Sergeant Roy E. "the Bummer" Bumgarner, a soldier who served with the 1st Cavalry Division and later the 173d Airborne Brigade.

In 1971 John Kerry testified along with 150 other soldiers to the US Senate in an investigation called "Winter Soldier Investigation." A smart thing to do considering the massacres of the Vietnamese people numbering in estimates of over 1.1 million civilian dead. That is only the dead and the civilians.

One might call the phenomena in the former Iraq, "The Post USA Occupation Syndrome." 

We don't belong in Iraq. 

We never did.

This is how the Mission Creep of Vietnam started.

Latest (click here)

14.06 Two US jets hit a mobile artillery piece.

14.00 US forces struck after artillery fire against Kurdish forces defending the key city of Erbil.

13.54 US aircraft launched airstrikes against extremist positions in northern Iraq after artillery fire near US personnel, the Pentagon has said....

First it is advisers, then humantarian aide and the next thing one knows is an assassination of a beloved president followed by the Veep ordering troops on the ground in Vietnam. I suppose all Presidents thereafter learned their lessons well.

What was it Jackie stated, "Jack, they've killed you."

Just for the record, the Yazidis have always live on Mount Sinjar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but, but, but, this time their food and water has been cut off. "W"rong. 

The reason the USA is involved at Sinjar is because the Kurds and ISIS were conducting a battle there. So, while some roads were cut off to the higher elevations due to the fighting I would hardly call this a refugee camp. It is not.

As a matter of fact there is a researcher by the name of Nadhir al-Ansari that has been conducting studies in those mountains. He is from LUT, Lulea University of Technology in Sweden who has studied the harvesting of water conducted by the people there.

Climate change and future long term trends of rainfall at north-east Part of Iraq (click here)

• Draft copy of Issue 6 2014
  
  Draft_copy_of_Issue_6_2014.pdf, 6 MB, application/pdf
  04/07/14

In his research he was looking for sources of water as alternatives to the main rivers. But, the study hasn't been published yet.

Water harvesting and reservoir optimization in selected areas of south Sinjar Mountain,Iraq

The provinces of the former Iraq and ISIS are involved with a war. The USA is sneaking up from behind on the American people. This is about whether or not the USA will engage the military arm of ISIS which is empowered by the War Pollution it left behind that made the Iraqi military and police look so impressive.

The fact of the matter is the three provinces are attempting to 'handle' the USA empowered ISIS. That is the problem and there is no other problem. Could it be said the three provinces are fighting for a water supply? Sure. So, with the assistance of USA and it's War Pollution of Humvees (ISIS should thank Cheney for that one) and munitions ISIS is posing a threat to the water resources. The three provinces have a problem and the only two currently able to develop any type of military response are the Kurds in the North and the Shia in the South. Saudi Arabia could wipe out ISIS in a short period of time, but, alas ISIS are Sunnis out of Syria and who wants to kill them after all.

ISIS can also thank Senator McCain for his support in expectations they would unseat Assad. Oops.

We don't belong in Iraq.

We never did.

The sixty days on USA advisors ends August 18, 2014.

June 19, 2014
By Karen DeYoung and Anne Gearan

...But “American combat troops (click here) are not going to be fighting in Iraq again,” he said, a point he made repeatedly during remarks in the White House briefing room. “Ultimately, this is something that is going to have to be solved by Iraqis.”...

Jet fighter pilots are combat troops.

I hope the advisers have given good advise and if not then the USA personnel at the consulate needs to pack and get their butts out to the tarmac and fly home.