Turkey is so chicken to go thru with their ambitions. Obama is hanging Turkish Dictator Erdogan dry. Not sure what caused Obama's policy change but Obama is backing the Kurds in Syria at the expense of Turkey. About Putin's threat. It is real but this happened 10 days ago. Since then Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed on new Oil Policy and today Putin called Saudi King to inform him about the new deal between USA and Russia regarding Peace process in Syria. And Saudi Kingdom made a declaration today about Putin's call and said they are welcoming the new peace treaty and said they support Russia's plan.
And what is funny is, Russia told Turkey if they ever enter Syrian Air Space to attack Kurdish militia, they will attack Turkey. Since then, no Turkish War Plane entered Syrian Air Space. And poor Turkey is just bombing Kurdish militia from inside Turkey. Oh I love it. Love love love it. Fuck Turkey and the dictator Erdogan.
An interesting little piece of news from SE Asia but the Philippines military was requested by the Saudis to step up security with their embassy here in Manila as well as around Saudi Arabian airlines flights in and out of Manila. There is a bit of speculation that Iran/Russia are planning something. The embassy is about a 15 minute walk from my condo.
Try not to die before I see you again in Vegas. Kidding aside Barry, I don't think it is about Russia's threat. Like I said, today Saudi Arabia declared their support for Russian plan in Syria and they made an agreement 3 days ago on Oil Policy which angered Iran. When it comes to Syria, Russia is working with Iran on the ground. When it comes to Oil Policy they are working with Saudi's. Laugh all you want but preventing a Saudi-Iran (Sunni-Shiite) war is on the hands of Russia.
I'd listen to the Russians when they draw red lines at this point. I'm going to be really happy if Russia takes on the role of policing the Sunni-Shiite war in the Middle East at this point. There's no win in handling that role but a lot of blood, sweat, tears and gold on the line. Then the US can back off and just worry about Israel for a change. It'll be culture shock for the Israelis, who are used to the US being the big dog in the region, but it's for the best from our perspective and it would give Russia a much needed lesson on the perils of big power diplomacy in regions in which there are no good answers and a trend towards the worst ones. BTW, whatever the US has tried vis-a-vis Russia has failed dramatically going back to the civil war in Georgia. We instigated the Ukraine thing and then watched the Russians annex the Crimea. We instigated the Syria thing and then watched the Russians become a successful international big power again away from their borders. We need to stop fucking with the Russians while everything else goes to hell in a handbasket around us. Adding our relations with Russia going to hell in a handbasket to that mix just makes things exponentially worse.
@Petrozza A nice article from Huffington Post. I think you will enjoy this. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stanley-weiss/its-time-to-kick-erdogans_b_9300670.html?ir=WorldPost
Putler is just butthurt someone had the balls to do something about his guys fucking with peoples airspace over and over. Fuck them. Let them draw their "red lines" all they want, they are a paper tiger. Except maybe in the cyber arena, there they are a real tiger--along with the Chinese stealing shit their shitty ass countries can't come up with. The new president needs not to kiss KGB ass, that includes Trump and the Billary.
If this is true, Russia won't be back in Syria. Have to think it becomes a considerable cost moving forces. ie you don't move your force out to move it right back in. I don't think they will leave empty handed either. Assad gets the short end of this deal, and gets to keep his head for the time being. Russia is posturing against USA. Watch tensions begin to flare up in Ukraine again...and threats in pacific interests. Syria is too much of a mess to clean up. Russia does not have the resources to control that conflict while keeping up with USA on other global matters. One big question is Iran, and what we have enabled by helping to lift sanctions; how close are they to acquiring a bomb? So much for Russia putting an end to the conflict in Syria. The fighting will continue, and most likely intensify now.
Russia is running out of money. There is no other explanation. Not much changed in Syria since Russia intervened in terms of geographic divide in the country. Kurdish people still rule the Northern Syria, ISIS still powerhouse in Eastern Syria and Regime Powers are strong in South/Southwest Syria. One good thing happened. After Turkey shot down Russian plane, Russia told Turkey they can't fly over Syria or else. This helped Kurdish militia big time because all Turkey was doing in Syria was killing Kurdish militia.
its been very quiet on this front recently in the media, they have been so drunk with the boob juice of donald trump they forgot there were important things going on.
At least Putin is smart enough not to get overly involved in a generational war that would just suck the life out of what's left of the Russian economy. That war will be fought for decades to come or until all sides runs out of bullets.
If Putler was really smart he wouldn't have bothered with Crimea and fucking with sovereign Ukraine. Prez O is kind of soft but his sanctions have been costing Putler a lot. New Russia is kind of a cool idea and all, but no one will give a fuck if they have nothing to eat. Of course, Putler will get reelected like he always does or change their "Constitution" to elect a dummy like Medvedev. Now all we need to do is to elect that bad haircut fool who admires Putler and hates our neighbors in the South. Rant over.
Was he supposed to just sit and watch a EU/US puppet government being installed in the "sovereign" Ukraine? And then watch the Ukraine join the EU and NATO, which would most likely put a US military base there? He did what he had to do from a geopolitical perspective. Unfortunately, it's the Ukrainian people who suffered from these political games between the EU/US and Russia.
