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Jeff Cook-Coyle's avatar

Get a load of this, the soldiers in Nigerbdancing together. Basically, the situation is this, we can get along with the Russians or be vaporized by them.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

I'm for getting along.

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Steghorn21's avatar

Another interesting development via Zerohedge. A Russian oil base in the Laconian Sea (Med) where Russian oil is transferred to Western tankers has suddenly been moved South. Could be innocuous, but maybe not. Are there any Ukrainian yachts in the vicinity?

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Yes, interesting. Don't believe in coincidences.

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Steghorn21's avatar

Lots of interesting developments. I suspect Erdogan's hand was forced after the almighty bitch-slapping he received in the recent local elections. Of course, being Erdogan, his feet have to held to the fire to make sure he follows through. I totally agree about Cameron - the archetypal British upper class buffoon and Tweedledee to Johnson's Tweedledum. Johnson wrote a nauseating article in the UK Daily Mail about how sad he is that one of his ducks is dying. This is the man whose actions in wrecking the nascent March 2022 peace deal condemned hundreds of thousands to death.

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Agreed.

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Steghorn21's avatar

Mark, I suspect you have followed the same path as me concerning our perceptions about Israel. Being of a certain generation (I'm 61), I grew up with the idea that Israel was this plucky little David character fighting the smelly, barbaric Arabs who surrounded them. For me, Israel was the Entebbe Raid and turning the desert into verdant fields. Of course, I knew that the Israelis were pretty tough on the Palestinians, but hey, they were terrorists, so it was okay. Learning the true nature of the psychopathic Zionist state has been a massive jolt for me. Just as 2016 did for the Western Deep State, October 7th really tore away the mask. In contrast, most young Americans aren't burdened with this conservatard generational blind-spot. They see genocide as it happens on their social media apps. This is very dangerous for the neocons and zionists because it means that one day, the pressure will be too great to continue throwing money and weapons at Israel. That won't happen over night, but happen it will.

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ccdirtdawgs's avatar

I'm 63. Was just reviewing some of the events that shaped our views of the Middle East pre-internet. Like the '72 Munich Olympics massacre just before my 12th birthday. The most important thing to this young American girl was that no harm came to heart throb Mark Spitz, and oh wow, he's Jewish?

Reviewing today, it's obvious how scripted & rife w/IC's fav go to of 'plausible deniability.' Carter's Iran fiasco too. The ones who shd have been blindsided and/or killed lived & continued on to profit at the expense of innocents. Sick.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Munich-Massacre/German-and-Israeli-responses

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Mark Wauck's avatar

Well, I'm 74. I'd say that the initial perception you speak of was commonly shared during my HS years. In college my political horizons were limited more to US politics, including the Vietnam war and the sharp leftward lurch of Dems. I was focused on medieval matters. I started becoming more aware of foreign policy aspects during my law school years and then especially during my working career. Israel has always been officially considered a particularly aggressive espionage agent against the US--despite the Lobby's increasing control of politicians--so that inoculated me to a degree against more popular views. I'd say my increasing awareness came around the time retired with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

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Steghorn21's avatar

Yes, Lebanon was the first disillusion for me too. I remember pictures of the IDF self-propelled guns shelling Beirut suburbs, and the refugee camp massacres.

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Martin's avatar

Yep, remember it well, I was a young naive Cpl in the Legion 2eme REI stationed in Beirut, one time I was dug into the hills with my group de combat overlooking the carnage reporting on the number of artilleries fired into the city.

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lr's avatar

I was in jr high/high school in the 80s. They tried assassinating Reagan too, right? Despite having infiltrated his administration with Bush the first. No one talks about that. Do you have any insight in this?

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