First an admin note. This week and next are the time of year I devote to winterizing the yard. I’ll have professional help, but will still be occupied. As usual, I’ll try to juggle things and keep a flow of posts going. The last time we checked in on Poland, the country was in its month long post election period during which a new government was supposed to be formed. It looked like the “pro-EU” coalition led by ueber EU eminence grise Donald Tusk would form the new government. However, Law and Justice, under PM Morawiecki, was still holding out hope that it could finesse a coalition sufficient to continue it’s own government. That month long period is now coming to an end, with the Tusk coalition in position to form a government, but …
Duane Patterson credited Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for blocking action against Israel in an Arab League meeting he hosted in Riyadh this weekend.
Patterson wrote, “Salman is ruthless and determined at all costs to keep the country, and the House of Saud’s rule of it, together for the long haul. He knows, like everyone else in the world with moral clarity, that Iran’s hegemonic goals do not stop with the eradication of the Jews. Christians are next. And once the world that remains is Muslim, in their fever dream of a utopian world, they turn inward to the wrong kind of Muslims.
“Sunnis [Saudi’s religion] are apostates to the Shia and have been for centuries, and bin Salman, with this move, is recognizing that it’s in his own long-term interest to side with the allies that are going up against his biggest threat in the region.”
So in the short-term, Arabs are giving Israel room to get rid of Iranian-backed Hamas. Bibi is doing just that.
I followed all the links to the source. It's the purest Zionist propaganda. For starters, if any of that were true why would MBS have made up first with Syria's Assad (an Alawite, akin to Shia) and next with Iran? Moreover, it's well known that Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood outfit that gets its major backing from countries that are friendly to that brand of Sunni Islam--Qatar and Turkey. That's why CIA's Burns traveled to Qatar recently. Iran's aid to Hamas is not its major backing.
Note in that article that Iran is said to provide $100 million to Palestinian orgs "including Hamas", whereas Qatar provides multiple $100s of millions "to Gaza", meaning "to Hamas."
Surber has covered himself in shame on this issue.
And Biden gives the money to Iran they need to fund this sort of chaos. This is seriously screwed up. We fund Iran then trash them in the news by telegraphing a war with Iran.
Listen to these two very wise and experienced academics, really at the top of their games, whether you agree with their conclusions or not, discuss which governments and which leaders are lying? And how states make decisions? Spoiler alert: George W Bush may or may not be a war criminal (see discussion here a couple days ago) but he definitely lied to the American people about the War in Iraq. And Mearsheimer explains why.
The key takeaway from all this, talking in high-level geopolitical, Clausewitzian terms, is that it's not a good idea to have a surname beginning with Z in Ukraine at the moment.
Yep. I don't believe the Israeli lies, but I'm wary too of Hezbollah and Hamas's tank kill claims. It's beginning to sound like the Battle of Prokhorovkha!
I doubt Israel is lying directly through official public channels, but I’m sure there are errors and omissions.
Unofficial channels using third parties to lie, slander, dox seem to be a new political tool to use against enemies. I would be shocked if parties within Israel are not doing something like this:
it said in part...The whistleblowers said Jeffrey Veltri, deputy assistant director of the bureau’s security division, and Dena Perkins, assistant section chief, specifically pursued employees who served in the Marine Corps or other military branches.
I don't discount this, or I wouldn't have linked. OTOH, there are--or used to be--one helluva lot of those former military types on board. I retired in 2006, but I have to think that with the ongoing GWOT the numbers would only have grown.
Why would you think a guy who repeats long ago debunked propaganda that is currently being used to justify genocide has something helpful to say? I tried reading Farrow back during Covid and realized it was a waste of time.
His ref to "brutally massacred infants" as a fact. But I have read Farrow in the past and found it an unrewarding experience. I don't accept the notion that an ethnic group has a "roll". They may play a role, but that's not the same thing.
If the UK is backing Zaluzhny and the US is backing Zelensky, why is ex-CIA director Bill Burns flying to Kiev to tell Zelensky he has to go?
The point is that nobody's really sure who's on first, but there's clearly something up--and the two Z men are on opposing sides.
Don Surber writes today:
Duane Patterson credited Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for blocking action against Israel in an Arab League meeting he hosted in Riyadh this weekend.
Patterson wrote, “Salman is ruthless and determined at all costs to keep the country, and the House of Saud’s rule of it, together for the long haul. He knows, like everyone else in the world with moral clarity, that Iran’s hegemonic goals do not stop with the eradication of the Jews. Christians are next. And once the world that remains is Muslim, in their fever dream of a utopian world, they turn inward to the wrong kind of Muslims.
“Sunnis [Saudi’s religion] are apostates to the Shia and have been for centuries, and bin Salman, with this move, is recognizing that it’s in his own long-term interest to side with the allies that are going up against his biggest threat in the region.”
So in the short-term, Arabs are giving Israel room to get rid of Iranian-backed Hamas. Bibi is doing just that.
I followed all the links to the source. It's the purest Zionist propaganda. For starters, if any of that were true why would MBS have made up first with Syria's Assad (an Alawite, akin to Shia) and next with Iran? Moreover, it's well known that Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood outfit that gets its major backing from countries that are friendly to that brand of Sunni Islam--Qatar and Turkey. That's why CIA's Burns traveled to Qatar recently. Iran's aid to Hamas is not its major backing.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-cash-to-crypto-global-finance-maze-israels-sights-2023-10-16/
Note in that article that Iran is said to provide $100 million to Palestinian orgs "including Hamas", whereas Qatar provides multiple $100s of millions "to Gaza", meaning "to Hamas."
Surber has covered himself in shame on this issue.
And Biden gives the money to Iran they need to fund this sort of chaos. This is seriously screwed up. We fund Iran then trash them in the news by telegraphing a war with Iran.
OT: Here's a link to a very entertaining discussion between John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs posted today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O2XMimgSjw
Listen to these two very wise and experienced academics, really at the top of their games, whether you agree with their conclusions or not, discuss which governments and which leaders are lying? And how states make decisions? Spoiler alert: George W Bush may or may not be a war criminal (see discussion here a couple days ago) but he definitely lied to the American people about the War in Iraq. And Mearsheimer explains why.
Great catch.
Thank you for the reply. It is sad that members of the FBI would target thier own people.
The key takeaway from all this, talking in high-level geopolitical, Clausewitzian terms, is that it's not a good idea to have a surname beginning with Z in Ukraine at the moment.
Exactly Zteghorn21.
Watch your back, Zardy. :)
Very insightful point.
Andrei Martyanov:
“each side is making its own claims”
Yep. I don't believe the Israeli lies, but I'm wary too of Hezbollah and Hamas's tank kill claims. It's beginning to sound like the Battle of Prokhorovkha!
I doubt Israel is lying directly through official public channels, but I’m sure there are errors and omissions.
Unofficial channels using third parties to lie, slander, dox seem to be a new political tool to use against enemies. I would be shocked if parties within Israel are not doing something like this:
https://www.racket.news/p/uk-files-reports-show-both-left-and
Probably got paid to say this too.
Just read an article from the Washington Times.
it said in part...The whistleblowers said Jeffrey Veltri, deputy assistant director of the bureau’s security division, and Dena Perkins, assistant section chief, specifically pursued employees who served in the Marine Corps or other military branches.
Is this true, what is your opinion on this/
thank you
I don't discount this, or I wouldn't have linked. OTOH, there are--or used to be--one helluva lot of those former military types on board. I retired in 2006, but I have to think that with the ongoing GWOT the numbers would only have grown.
And now they're getting a nice new, state of the art HQ to keep track of us all.
Very believable, unfortunately…
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/nov/10/whistleblowers-fbi-officials-singled-out-agents-wh/
Why would you think a guy who repeats long ago debunked propaganda that is currently being used to justify genocide has something helpful to say? I tried reading Farrow back during Covid and realized it was a waste of time.
His ref to "brutally massacred infants" as a fact. But I have read Farrow in the past and found it an unrewarding experience. I don't accept the notion that an ethnic group has a "roll". They may play a role, but that's not the same thing.
"My view is we let Israel know that it is on its own."
It would certainly be a watershed moment if we did.
And then turned our attention to fixing this country.
Good question.