"We need more love and understanding"

They are scared. I am scared. I am learning more about police technique than I ever wanted to know.  There have been more heinous deaths of African American deaths by police. I wish President Obama would invite representatives of "Black Lives Matter" to a summit at the White House. Perhaps there needs to be a summit with Hispanic citizens and Undocumented as well.

Change has to take place at the community level. Whatever can be done to facilitate that should be done. I think every USA city and town should review laws that create their own financial hardship and jail. There needs to be reviews how well minorities are doing in schools and neighborhoods. Cities and towns need to remove any laws that cause discrimination. There is nothing to say any punitive laws have been intentionally discriminatory or harsh, but, to not conduct a review would be exactly that.

All the Democratic candidates for President are sensitive to the issues our minorities face. Perhaps other opposition candidates should be called out for their bias.

October 30, 2015
By Stevens Peoples and Bill Barrow

Atlanta (AP) — Shouting over protesters, (click here) Hillary Rodham Clinton promised black Americans she would address systemic racism, and if elected, follow in the footsteps of her predecessor, the country's first black president.
The Democratic presidential front-runner outlined her plans for criminal justice reform — a key component of her push to court African-American voters — facing what was supposed to be a friendly audience at Clark Atlanta University, a historically black institution. Yet just a few minutes into her remarks she was interrupted by protesters from the Black Lives Matters movement.
They sang and chanted for nearly 12 minutes several feet from the podium as Clinton tried to shout over them. Rep. John Lewis, a hero in the civil rights movement, urged them to stop, as did the musician Usher.
The group of fewer than 10 protesters eventually left the college gymnasium only after the crowd of more than 2,000, most of them young African Americans, forcefully chanted, "Let her talk!"...

Nineteen countries are meeting as a Syrian Summit.

Any coalition government has to guarantee peace and protection of all the people.

October 30, 2015
By Bradley Klapper and George Jahn 

The fate of President Bashar Assad II is at the center of discussions, sources say. (click here)

Vienna — The United States, Russia and other regional and world powers were considering a new plan Friday to set up a ceasefire in Syria within the next four to six months, followed by the formation of a transition government featuring President Bashar Assad and opposition members, officials told The Associated Press.
How long Assad could remain in power under the transition was still unclear.

The Western officials said the United States and its partners supported the timetable as a first phase toward ending the 4½-year civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people and uprooted more than 11 million, leading to the growing terrorist threat of the Islamic State and sparking a refugee crisis throughout Europe. They said an agreement hadn’t yet been reached, but that the 19 nations meeting in Vienna were considering the idea.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said that a follow-up meeting was expected as early as next week, with top diplomats possibly returning to Austria’s capital....

...Assad’s fate was at the center of discussions. The U.S., Saudi Arabia and others have tempered their earlier calls for Assad’s immediate ouster and now say he can remain in office for months as part of a transition if he agrees to resign at the end of the process. Russia and Iran are both providing Assad military assistance and say Syria’s leadership shouldn’t be dictated by outside forces....

I have to agree. The West has had more then enough to time display leadership in an alternate government and it has not. Agreed there needs to be a coalition government, but, that means the Shia have someone in leadership that can provide stability to their lives and children.

Syria is highly diverse. It is the most northern country where such diversity completes it's mix. There is not a great deal of diversity in Turkey or Iran and we all know the diversity in Iraq. There is no simple fix for Syria.

What needs to be included in the agreement is the end of any overreach into Lebanon by Assad. He has to bring his people home. The security of the Alawites have to be inside Syria's borders and not in Lebanon between Syria and Israel. Each security issue in Syria has to be addressed within it's own borders.

Hezbollah is a part of the Shi'ite diaspora. They need to stop their autonomy and bring their families into Syria or Iran. If the Shia are to maintain the Crescent it has to live within the rules of peace without a goal for expansionism.

As soon as there is a sustainable ceasefire, global leaders will have to asses how best they can reassure reconstruction in Syria and they have to insure water sources to it's very parched farmland.

October 30, 2015
By Rose Troup Buchanan

Shaker Aamer, (click here) the last British resident detained in Guantanamo, has been reportedly released and is flying back to his wife and four children in London.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed to Sky News Mr Aamer had been released. His plane is believed to be due to land in the UK at around midday today.
Co-director of the We Stand With Shaker campaign Andy Worthington also said he had confirmation from Mr Aamer's lawyer he is due to return.
"We're delighted to hear that his long and unacceptable ordeal has come to an end," he told Press Association....

Thirteen years has gone by and the children will be near adulthood. There is much they have to get used to.

Shaker Aamer was never charged or faced trial. 

The renewed Syrian military has tanks on the ground and they are making significan gains.

The Russian Air Force (click here) has conducted some 1,400 sorties in Syria since the start of Moscow's anti-terror operation. They have eliminated more than 1,600 terrorist targets in one month, the Ministry of Defense said.

Among the destroyed targets are 249 command posts, 51 militants' training camps, 131 ammunition and fuel depots and 786 field bases, Colonel General Andrey Kartapolov of Russia's General Staff said on Friday....

Let me find the You Tube video. It will make you cry. It brought me to near tears. Damascus is nothing but rubble. The United Nations Security Council need to call in The Arab Coalition in regard to departure from their protocol by the USA.

The USA is not the only country that respects differences in ethnicity and protects people from genocide and attack.

29 October 2015

Foreign Ministry’s plenipotentiary for Human Rights (click here) says Russia is extremely worried by the threat the current Middle East crisis poses for Christianity, adding that the extremists who launch attacks posing as Muslims were discrediting that religion.

“Today’s situation in the Middle East Region is taking a critical shape, without any exaggeration. Radical extremists are conducting mass executions, destroy Christian churches, force people out of their homes and destroy holy sites with millennia-long history,” Konstantin Dolgov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
The ombudsman said Russian authorities were "in the most serious way concerned about the fate of the 2000-long presence of Christianity in the Middle East" and reminded the journalists that since the beginning of the armed conflict in Syria the numbers of Christian population in t.his country dropped from 2.2 million to 1.2 million and that the most important Christian holy sites in this country had been attacked or destroyed....

A familiar ally. The USA is definitely embarking on a path to a unilateral Cold War.

October 29, 2015
By Leda Reynolds

Mr Sarkozy (click here) met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow where he called on the West to stop isolating Russia saying Europe needs to work with it
 The meeting was an unusal diplomatic foray during which the former French premier said it was essential that Europe and Russia presents a united fron to end current tensions, particularly in Syria.
 The meeting was an unusal diplomatic foray during which the former French premier said it was essential that Europe and Russia presents a united fron to end current tensions, particularly in Syria....

Kindly move past the music and dialogue and see the city and the complete devastation. After realizing Damascus is in ruins it can be stated there probably not an inch of Syria that isn't in ruins. It will take enormous amonts of money and time to rebuild this land. Not only that, but, the reason this civil war began was because of DROUGHT. So, water supplies have to be returned first.

The music is nothing new to a war environment. Troops have their preferences.

This is the reporting. The video was recorded by a drone. (click here)

October 24, 2015
 

The USA is not needed in Syria. The military's ego is bruised because Russia entered combat there.

That is all this is. The US military brass are bummed out because Russia gets the action and not THE MARCH OF FREEDOM.

Obama is a major disappointment.  The USA military had more than a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out "The March of Freedom" and it proved to be completely wrong headed while creating it's own enemy in the Ba'athists and a reconstituted Taliban.

There was a dialogue about Iraq at the time "W" was selling his "March of Freedom" to the American people that would have ended all this and would have averted any invasion into Iraq. The dialogue was to remove Saddam and leave the Iraqi military (Ba'athists) intact while there was new leadership considered by the people and the international community. It was streamrolled by "W" and his neocons.

So, now rather than leaving Iraq and Syria to the people that live there and TRADITIONAL allies in Russia, the USA military has again managed to deceive the American people and are reconstituting their war stance because Russia is doing what they believe they should be doing. 

This reconstitution is stupid. It is equally stupid as the radar balloon. I thought the radar balloon was in all war deployments to provide intelligence to incoming flying machines and missiles. If that was the case, then why are there Russian and USA jets coming across each other in the Middle East. The USA military is the biggest bullshitter on Earth.

October 30, 2015

President Obama (click here) is directing the Pentagon to send special forces into Syria to advise the Syrian opposition in its fight against ISIS, sources confirmed to ABC News.

The change would station U.S. special operations forces on the ground for the first time in Syria in its fight against the Islamic State after thousands of airstrikes in the past year produced mixed results, although their mission is expected to be primarily advisory.

The change "is consistent with strategy to intensify the battle against ISIS,” a White House senior official told ABC News.

A U.S. official says the White House will announce that Obama has authorized somewhere around 50 special operations forces to go into Syria to work with the rebel group known as the Syrian Arab Coalition. These forces will work along the Syrian border and not on the front lines with the rebel groups. They will provide training, assistance and advise just as U.S. troops are doing in Iraq....

Is peace so threatening that every country has to test the USA's limit 24/7?

Knock it off.  If the USA wanted war with Iran it would not have sought a peace treaty. This is such bullshit!

If it isn't a Iranian boat, it's a Russian jet. If it isn't a Russian jet, it is China thinking it can own the world by building faux islands. This is hideous.

All this is doing it increasing the cost of US military operations. It is not proving any weakness in the USA or NATO or alliances in the Pacific. Isn't it time Russia, China and others find a better dialogue on their politics?

One of two Iranian navy warships arrives to dock at Port Sudan in the Red Sea state December 8, 2012. A second visit by Iranian warships to Sudan in little over a month risks widening divisions inside the African country's government and upsetting its Gulf Arab donors

February 8, 2015
By AP 

Tehran, Iran (AP) - A senior Iranian naval commander (click here) says his country has sent several warships to the Atlantic Ocean, close to U.S. maritime borders for the first time.
The commander of Iran's Northern Navy Fleet, Admiral Afshin Rezayee Haddad, is quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying Saturday that the vessels have already begun the journey to the Atlantic Ocean via waters near South Africa.
Iranian officials said last month that the fleet consisted of a destroyer and a logistic helicopter carrier, which will be on a three-month mission....

A new nuclear submarine for Russia.

September 30, 2015
By Christopher Harress

Crew members are seen aboard a Russian submarine during celebrations of Navy Day in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, July 26, 2015.

Russia’s (click here) newest nuclear-powered submarine, the Alexander Nevsky, arrived in the far eastern Kamchatka region Wednesday, carrying Bulava nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, the Russian state news service Tass reported. The submarine, now a part of Moscow's nuclear deterrent, arrives at its new port during a time of rapid Russian military modernization and renewed rivalry with the United States and NATO. 
The submarine, which is in the new Borei-class, made the journey from the Northern Fleet to the port of Vilyuchinsk in the farthest reaches of the country. It will join the Pacific Fleet, where its primary job will be to conduct strategic nuclear deterrence patrols in the Pacific Ocean, according to Tass....

Urkaine's recovery after the peace treaty of Minsk II is going forward. The IMF has granted Ukraine funding past any default of debt with Russia. Russia needs to work with Ukraine to structure it's debt repayment. Ukraine is still recovering from a large deficit with Russia and that recovery has to go forward in order for Ukraine to pay Russia. So, the best way forward for Russia is to work with Ukraine leadership for debt repayment. Russia should end the chronic issue of debt default with Ukraine.

Oct 30, 2015

Russian Finance Minister AntonSiluanov (click here) said on Friday that Russia was worried that reforms to the International Monetary Fund's lending rules were being forced through in the context of the "very politicised" question of Ukraine's debt restructuring.
Siluanov also told journalists that Ukraine had refused to consider any alternatives apart from equating Ukraine's debt to Russia with debt before private creditors.
The IMF is expected to soon discuss reforms to lending rules that may allow continued support for Ukraine if it misses payments on a $3 billion debt to Russia, while keeping up pressure on the countries to break the impasse. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly and Darya Korsunskaya; Writing Alexander Winning; Editing by Maria Kiselyova)

The IMF's interest is securing the solvency of Ukraine's government. The IMF never acts in political ways, that is not it's mission.

To state the IMF is attempting to restructure the government of Ukraine is not accurate. Ukraine restructured its government to return to the 2004 Constitution since the unrest first broke out. The restructuring of Ukraine's government began long before the IMF came into view.

Russia needs to realize Ukraine is a peaceful country and wants peace with it's neighbors. There is no animosity on the international level with Ukraine. It wants to be a trading partner with Russia as well as The West.

There is a recent example of that outreach by Ukraine.

October 29, 2015

Visiting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (click here) and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov have vowed to boost bilateral cooperation in various sectors, including energy ties.
After talks in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, on October 29, Poroshenko called Turkmen-Ukrainian relations "historic and strategic" and expressed his confidence that ties between the two former Soviet countries will continue to develop.
Poroshenko added that he expects Berdymukhammedov to come to Kyiv on an official visit in the first half of 2016.
Berdymukhammedov said his country "is ready to boost energy deliveries" to Ukraine, also stressing the importance of developing Kyiv-Ashgabat cooperation in the energy and transportation sectors.
Turkmenistan owns the world's fourth-biggest reserves of natural gas.
Ukraine has faced problems with natural-gas deliveries from Russia amid a souring of relations over the Kremlin's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and the ongoing conflict between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian armed forces in eastern Ukraine.

Based on reporting by UNIAN and Interfax 

While Ukraine's focus on The West while seeking debt relief through the IMF may be of concern to Russia, there is nothing to say Ukraine was seeking to abandon any friendly relationship with every country in the region. This trip by President Petro Poroshenko should prove to Russia that Ukraine is interested in peace and prosperity with all countries that want to extent an interest in trade. There is no threat to Russia by Ukraine.

There never was a threat from Ukraine of Russia even during the early days of the unrest. The rebels have nothing to fear. Ukraine is not interested in removing it's history nor does it have a desire to limit it's future. 

I realize the military build up at Ukraine's border by Russia is to reassure the rebels to bring about a sincere peace, there should be a recognition that Ukraine will be obligated to all it's citizens to prove equally it has a responsibility to have a strong defense at that border. Russia needs to consider reducing it's presence along the Ukraine border and perhaps in matching demilitarization by Ukraine. 

Russia should realize it's substantial presence along Ukraine is making NATO nervous. Russia needs to demilitarize Ukraine's border. It will serve as a reassurance to the peace process both the rebels and Russia was a part. There is a need for reassurance and deescalation of tensions. I think Russia knows this and needs to begin to plot it's actions accordingly.