The more military hardware and munitions into Syria, the more the problem grows.

I always expect the USA to learn from it's mistakes, but, it makes them over and over. IS/IS/L is just such an example.

It is simple math. Send in ten guns to a conflict and ten people will most likely die, BUT, the ten guns live on and quite frequently in the cashe of the enemy. Just because a soldier of radical Islam dies doesn't mean his weapons do. A gun doesn't bleed.

Just curious. How is the containment of North Korea and Iran's nuclear capacity coming? America Feeling good about it or is it that it lacks alternatives?

September 4, 2014
By Steven Borowiec

...South Korea's problem with suicide (click here) has been well documented. But a World Health Organisation report has found that the problem is even worse in its northerly neighbour, making the peninsula one of the most suicidal regions in the world.

The report, entitled Preventing Suicide: A Global Imperative, estimates that in 2012, 9,790 suicides took place in North Korea, with roughly equal numbers of males and females killing themselves. The report acknowledged that acquiring data was difficult, and that it had arrived at its North Korean estimate by factoring in a range of statistically predictive factors.

Analysts say North Koreans may be driven to suicide by poverty, and the psychological stress of living in a restrictive environment. "I heard economic hardship was the main reason, but really, for anyone who is gay or lesbian or has mental health issues, life in North Korea is really tough," said Sandra Fahy, assistant professor at Sophia University in Tokyo and author of the forthcoming monogrpah Marching Through Suffering: Loss, Survival and North Korea....

So they miss a deadline. I'm sure they will catch. Oh, yeah, the sanctions. Containment. Yep.


September 5, 2014

...Iran has missed a deadline (click here) to answer questions about its nuclear programme, the IAEA global nuclear watchdog says.

Iran had agreed to provide information to help allay concerns about a military dimension to its programme, but had failed to do so, the IAEA reported.

These include suspected work on detonators which can set off nuclear bombs and high explosive charges.

It comes weeks before a deadline for Iran and world powers to reach a final deal to resolve the nuclear issue....

Indeed.

Six soldiers died because someone called about insurgents disrupting a polling station.

September 6, 2014

WASHINGTON: Avoidable miscommunication (click here) between US air and ground forces led to a “friendly fire” incident in Afghanistan that killed five US soldiers and one Afghan in June, according to a military investigation report....

...The June incident happened in Zabul province in southern Afghanistan at the end of an operation led by the Afghan army and supported by Army Special Forces. Their aim was to disrupt insurgents and improve security for local polling stations in the Arghandab district in advance of the June 14 Afghan presidential runoff election....

...Muzzle flashes seen at their position on the ridgeline were mistaken for signs of rifle fire from insurgents, in part because the movement of the six was not properly communicated to those coordinating with the B-1 crew. And when the B-1 crew said their targeting pods had detected no US marking devices at that location it was decided that targets must by insurgents....

Zabul Province in Afghanistan has a history of disruptive Taliban, but, that goes back to 2010. Do missions in Afghanistan NEVER obtain their long term goals?

April 6, 2013

Our State Department family (click here) is grieving over the loss of one of our own, an exceptional young Foreign Service officer, killed today in an IED attack in Zabul province, along with service members, a Department of Defense civilian, and Afghan civilians. Four other State Department colleagues suffered injuries, one critically.

Our American officials and their Afghan colleagues were on their way to donate books to students in a school in Qalat, the province’s capital, when they were struck by this despicable attack....

It would appear that 13 years of military operations in "The Wack A Mole Country" of Afghanistan hasn't resolved anything. Case in point. But, American money and munitions continue to pour into the country while dead bodies are returned to the USA.

Testament to the meaningless wars of the USA to attempt to build a nation.

Saudi Arabia has control of it's militants. It always have. They don't use tanks do to it either.

September 6, 2014
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

...Authorities have detained (click here) several suspects in close operations that started since last December, the paper added. It said 48 Syrians were arrested, including 11 who entered the Kingdom as “visitors.”

“The Interior Ministry in its statements did not disclose the charges against them, but the close arrests over the past few months give signals that they were plotting to carry out terrorist acts at the behest of the Assad regime,” the paper said. The number of Syrians detained in Saudi jails is the second largest for foreign detainees after Yemenis, whose number is 189, according to the paper.

The ministry said it had apprehended 88 individuals with suspected links to foreign terror groups, said alarabiya.net

“Security agencies, over a period of several months, monitored all the suspects, particularly those with extremist ideologies,” said a ministry statement carried by the SPA....

These leaders stop extremists all the time. Saudi Arabia doesn't go to war with their neighbors, anyone notice that? It shares a border with Al Anbar. Hello?

September 6, 2014
A court has sentenced four Saudis (click here) to prison for up to six years and prevented them from traveling for participating in fighting in Syria with ISIS and the Nusra Front. The convicts impersonated other people and left Saudi Arabia with fake passports through land ports. One of them participated in guarding a terrorist camp. 

Another was imprisoned and banned from traveling for five years. He was accused of traveling with others to take part in the fight in Syria by stealing the passport of his brother and leaving the Kingdom through the Al-Rigi land port to Kuwait, and from there to Turkey. Smugglers later helped him slip into Syria.
Some months ago, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah issued a royal decree criminalizing fighting abroad or belonging to extremist or religious groups....

Business as usual.

September 6, 2014
Two Indonesian Navy ships (click here)— KRI John Lie 358 and KRI Usman Harun 359 — docked at Jeddah seaport on Wednesday.
A reception hosted on board one of the ships was attended by Saudi Royal Navy Western Command officials with Col. Khaled Mohammed, Abdul Rhman Al-Otaibi, lieutenant commander, Indonesian Consul General in Jeddah Dharmakirty Syailendra Putra and his wife and diplomats from the Indonesian Consulate. Prominent Indonesian expatriates and Indonesian and Saudi journalists also enjoyed the evening with traditional Indonesian food and dance performances.
Col. Khaled Mohammed said that the visits of naval ships of different countries always help in strengthening relations between states and give their citizens an opportunity to exchange experiences and training.
Abdul Rahman Al-Otaibi said that warships of different countries visit the Kingdom with different missions. The current visit of Indonesian naval ships was to enhance the relationship between the two navies and countries...

The USA has to trim it's military spending. There is no real reason for it, except a militarized police force at home and a threatening presence abroad.

September 6, 2014 ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (click here) will seek the extradition of his ally-turned-foe, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, (He has his own website where he calls his accusers Nazis - click here) when he meets US President Barack Obama at the NATO summit on Friday, Turkish media reports said.
Erdogan, inaugurated last week, has vowed to press his battle with Gulen and his supporters whom he accuses of using influence within the judiciary, police and state bureaucracy to plot against him in his final year as prime minister.
On his plane traveling to Wales for the summit, Erdogan told reporters the “parallel structure,” the expression he uses to describe Gulen supporters within the state apparatus, would be among subjects he would discuss with Obama there.
Gulen lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. His followers revere him as an enlightened, pro-Western face of moderate Islam but secular critics say he infiltrated government ranks with religiously-minded professionals. “Deport him or give him to us,” the pro-government Yeni Safak and other newspapers quoted Erdogan as saying of Gulen. “Let him come and live in his own country if he says he hasn’t committed a crime.”
Erdogan says Gulen’s followers orchestrated a corruption probe against his inner circle, which emerged last December, and in response the government has purged thousands of police and hundreds of judges and prosecutors....

And he has global reach. 

The Gulen Movement (click here)

This study is an effort to understand how the Gülen movement, named after the prominent Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen, has a sphere of influence on the global scale. Active in more than a hundred countries with schools and intercultural centers, the Gülen movement is considered to be one of the most significant social movements that arose from the Muslim world.

The West. He denounces The West, but, does so with logical observation.

...When these people (click here) reach a particular level of economic development and wealth, the story goes, they will stop being problematic and will integrate accordingly. Once people internalize "tolerance and mutual respect," as embedded within the concept of democracy, and once they made these principles sovereign in their personal and public relations, then social problems would dissipate, or so it was hoped. Reality, however, proved that even after democracy has been established, religious, ethnic, and cultural differences continue to be a source of conflict.

Today, there are 192 United Nations member states, and perhaps twenty more outside the UN umbrella. There are more than six hundred language groups, and more than five thousand ethnicities. In only very few countries do all citizens speak the same language or belong to the same ethnic-national group. Such political, social, cultural, military, and religious multiplicity signifies potential dissension and conflict on an international scale. This potential often makes democratic assumptions uncertain and debatable. Since the end of the Cold War, ethnic and cultural conflicts have become central rallying points for political violence....

Those observations are not inaccurate. But, he shouldn't be hiding out in the USA if he is innocent of any crimes.

There are international agreements that already address the Syrian Peace Process. NATO isn't reinventing the wheel.

9.    Clear steps in the transition. (click here) The conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic will end only when all sides are assured that there is a peaceful way towards a common future for all in the country. It is therefore essential that any settlement provide for clear and irreversible steps in the transition according to a fixed time frame. The key steps in any transition include:

(a)    The establishment of a transitional governing body that can establish a neutral environment in which the transition can take place, with the transitional governing body exercising full executive powers. It could include members of the present Government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent;...

What this states is that Syria is suppose to be inclusive in it's resolve by all parties. In other words, John McCain should be arming rebels to end the existence of another. 

It is also very clear there is to be no escalation of tensions and/or violence to achieve this end. I don't see NATO redefining international treaties in order to insure an end they decide is important. The END of the violence is already make clear within international documents, WHICH I WILL POINT OUT, the EU was a party to.

1.    On 30 June 2012, the Secretaries-General of the United Nations and the League of Arab States, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Turkey, Iraq (Chair of the Summit of the League of Arab States), Kuwait (Chair of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the League of Arab States) and Qatar (Chair of the Arab Follow-up Committee on Syria of the League of Arab States) and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy met at the United Nations Office at Geneva as the Action Group for Syria, chaired by the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States to Syria. 

Is there something I missed here that states NATO has territorial rights to run game in any way Cameron wants to because his politics requires it? NATO may have their own ideas, but, there are countries in the region that can and should see to the outcome of the people in Syria. The USA Congress has no jurisdiction as the EU does not. Neither does Russia. 

The reason the USA is at all involved is because President Obama received a request from the then Prime Minister of Iraq. There is no joint treaty with the region and everyone else. The USA has the responsibility to protect it's allies, namely Jordan and Turkey that share borders with the area, but, there is nothing providing international intervention by NATO to this region.

The AGREEMENTS about Syria are already reached and simply be tossed out because NATO thinks differently.

There is already 1100 Americans in the former Iraq and they need to come home along with whatever diplomats that currently provide THE EXCUSE for the 1100 American military personnel to be there.

If NATO expects Russia to live up the rule of international treaties, then NATO needs to as well.

Air support for any military movements in northern region of the former Iraq can come out of Turkey.

These are the countries that were signators to Geneva II on Syria. Geneva II took place on 22 January 2014 in Montreux and on 23–31 January 2014 in Geneva (Switzerland). The other name for this agreement is Geneva II Middle East peace conference. In this understanding is the fact some countries want the Assad government supported while creating a "Transitional Government" where all people have a stake in the political outcomes of the country. NATO cannot simply decide it is going to change the game plan and carry out their own ideas. That is exactly the problem in Syria and that is why there was Geneva II. 

The travesty to Geneva II is the fact the so called opposition has no cohesive leadership. There are multiple authorities in Syria. One is Assad and Hezbollah. Others are many including The Free Syrian Army. That has been the trouble the entire time. A completely separate problem is that of the dissolution of Iraq. Add to that the fact the Baathists have joined IS/IS/L the former al Qaeda in Iraq. 

ISIS is not the problem alone. The real problem and why the country remains unstable is there is no consensus among the people within Syria whom the opposition leader is. The reason IS/IS/L was once considered the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is because both the Baathists and Syrian rebels were working together.

That is the problem with ATTEMPTING any confrontation in the Middle East and/or Pakistan/Afghanistan/India; there is no culture that provides allegiance to a common goal. It is like trying to catch a gopher in a borrow with two or more exits. While one exit is closed the gopher is busy making another.

DAMN IT, this is costing the USA billions everyday and no one gives a damn about that. This so called 'idea' from NATO won't work. It just won't. The people already on the ground in Syria are way ahead of The West. 

When the USA entered Afghanistan after the 2001 attacks on Lower Manhattan and the Pentagon it was cake walk. The paratroops found friends among the Afghan people and when the tanks arrived it was simply a matter of moving from the north to south without a hitch.

Why?

When fighting forces in these lands organize (And Dr. Abdullah Abdullah is more than qualified to talk to the truth within my words.) it is under a warlord that pays them through plunder of the land they conquer. When a warlord finds himself under attack and the fighting force knows they are outnumbered what happens?

They disappear only to have regrouped to form another fighting force under a different warlord. McCain likes to refer to this as "Wack a Mole." 

Conventional Western war methods don't work in these lands. The ONLY method of any country with these dynamics is containment. Eventually, containment leads to leadership to relieve the suffering of the people and that is where The West and others find leverage to bring about a different and more benevolent outcome to the people. At that point refugees can find their way back to their homes to repopulate the land.

There is Geneva II and that outlines basically what I have stated here. The problem with Geneva II is there is no outstanding leadership willing to come forward in peace to resolve to a Transitional Government. Syria is not at the point whereby Geneva II can apply it's principles. 

As far as Americans and Europeans going to Syria to fight; that is their choice AND their peril. I do not see The West has any responsibility to rescue anyone when the choice they made is so very dangerous. If the USA pledges to rescue every American now captured by IS/ISL, it is dragging itself into a forever war and that is exactly what the rebels of IS/IS/L wants. None of those that died ever believed they would face a ruthless Islamist. To that end their religious leaders within the sovereign borders of any other country have caused their deaths.

The USA is not obligated to defend Islam. 

This is real tragedy for a family.

I find it hard to believe the private plane industry hasn't developed a method to handle this.

This may seem arrogant, but, why can't there be a "fly-by-wire" installed within these planes that can be accessed from outside the plane emergently?

It just seems to me there needs to be an aircraft that can be equipped with technology that can connect with a Fly By Wire component in the private plane when the pilot is incapacitated. Couldn't there be an aircraft with a few pilots on board, one, perferably two to fly the "Master Plane" while another one or two command the plane where the pilot is disabled. I don't understand how Fly By Wire can exist with such success in landing Jumbos and not have that technology to handle these problems in order to safe lives.

According to the Arab News, Israel is increasing tensions in the region.

Where does Israel get the idea they can destroy any mosque?

September 5, 2014
Paris-Arab News

Crown Prince Salman, (click here) deputy premier and minister of defense, urged UNESCO on Thursday to take effective steps for protecting Masjid Al-Aqsa — the third holiest mosque in the world — from Israeli designs. 

Prince Salman made this call during a visit to UNESCO headquarters in Paris before the conclusion of his four-day official visit to France. The crown prince later returned to Jeddah.

“UNESCO should activate all its international resolutions to protect Al-Aqsa and all other valuable cultural antiquities in Palestine from Israeli aggression,” the crown prince said while praising the organization for giving full membership to Palestine.

A final communiqué that was issued at the end of the royal visit emphasized the two countries’ desire to strengthen their defense cooperation....

...In a cable sent to Hollande, Prince Salman said the visit would play a key role in strengthening Saudi-French relations in all fields. “Our talks have reflected the depth of our partnership relations,” he added.

Saudi Arabia and France expressed their grave concern over the ongoing events in the region, including the growing danger of the phenomenon of terrorism and extremism, hailing the call made recently by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to world leaders to accelerate the fight against terrorism and the importance of supporting the International Counterterrorism Center at the United Nations....

On July 18, 2014 Israel had a presence that was viewed as dangerous. There were young men assembled to demonstrate and Israel assaulted the mosque compound.

...Clashes (click here for video)  erupted in Jerusalem at the al-Aqsa mosque, known as the third-holiest site in Islam.
Dozens gathered outside the mosque to protest Israel's ground invasion into Gaza, according to the International Business Times. Protesters then clashed with Israel Defense Forces after Friday prayers.
According to Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, following Friday prayers at the mosque compound, about 200 to 300 masked youths caused disturbances by throwing stones at policemen stationed nearby. After 20 minutes of disturbances, police entered the compound and arrested seven people for rioting....

There are resolutions in the 1948 documents which stipulate there is integrity to religious grounds.

7. Resolves (click here) that the Holy Places - including Nazareth - religious buildings and sites in Palestine should be protected and free access to them assured, in accordance with existing rights and historical practice; that arrangements to this end should be under effective United Nations supervision; that the United Nations Conciliation Commission, in presenting to the fourth regular session of the General Assembly its detailed proposals for a permanent international regime for the territory of Jerusalem, should include recommendations concerning the Holy Places in that territory; that with regard to the Holy Places in the rest of Palestine the Commission should call upon the political authorities of the areas concerned to give appropriate formal guarantees as to the protection of the Holy Places and access to them; and that these undertakings should be presented to the General Assembly for approval;

That resolution carries a common thread through all resolutions regarding the Middle East. As recently as 2012, regarding Syria, there was a provision in Geneva-1 stating:

Offers equal opportunities and chances for all. (click here) There is no room for sectarianism or discrimination on ethnic, religious, linguistic or any other grounds. Numerically smaller communities must be assured that their rights will be respected

Geneva 1 was the basis for Geneva 2. The Middle East is defined by religion. Israel knows that. They also know it is unthinkable to desecrate any religious structure or grounds. 

In the clashes of July 18th, Israel took it's typical hard line stance against DEMONSTRATORS within their rights as they stood on religious ground. This religious compound is a sanctuary to these people and it is paramount they have the right to conduct demonstrations of their discontent. On one hand Israel wants peace, or so it says, and on the other hand it practices extremist methods and measures against people. It has to stop and all sanctuaries are to be respected.

Israel's culture is far too aggressive for the region and especially within Jerusalem. International agreements are important and Israel is proving over and over they don't respect them. 

Israel's aggressive methods against unarmed demonstrators will force them to take up arms in order to be recognized in their grievances; hence Hamas. Israel never de-escalates a situation it is always confrontation and escalation. Those waves of confrontation travel throughout the Middle East and the reaction in the extremist camps is to return the escalation through violence.

Netanyahu is in the USA playing 'the right to genocide (self-defense)' with USA politicians.


September 5, 2014
By Kevin Derby

On Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott (click here) released a letter from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanking the Florida Cabinet for issuing a resolution last month indicating Florida’s support for Israel during the current crisis in the Middle East.

“I received the state of Florida’s recent resolution reaffirming your unrequited support for Israel’s right of self-defense,” Netanyahu wrote Scott. “My government has been acting to protect our citizens against the scourge of Islamist terrorism, and we are strengthened by the steadfast support of our many friends in Florida.”...

Israel has a right to self-defense and it doesn't take the USA to recognize it. What it doesn't have a right to is annihilation of Gaza and death of it's citizens.