And just one day after fifty-one State Department nabobs in Exceptionalistan called for MORE warmongering! Yup, 51 drooling dickheads who truly believe America needs to be deeper into the muck of the Middle East went on the record demanding that US boots swarm into Syria, there to become targets for the Russian Air Force.
Not 24 hours later, there's Frank-Walter Steinmeier wagging his finger at the NATO gang and warning against needlessly antagonizing Russia.
Whoa! WTF is going on here?
You gotta love this line from the BBC story;
Mr Steinmeier said that extensive Nato manoeuvres launched this month were counterproductive to regional security and could inflame tensions with Russia.
No shit!
This story tells us two important things.
1. The German polity is in no way united behind the "tough on Russia" US/NATO agenda.
2. Fifty-one warmongers at State will hear the words "you're fired" next January.
Showing posts with label US State Department. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US State Department. Show all posts
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Who in the Canadian media landscape will stand up for the virtue and righteousness of Empire once Postmedia collapses?
Oh, I don't know... the Toronto Star crowd maybe?
That's a question that arose as I was reading Mike Den Tandt's missive at the National Post re: China's over-reaching ambitions in the South China Sea.
Mike is all knotted up because POTHEAD has been making friendly with the leaders of that commie dictatorship in the most populous nation on earth, the People's Republic of China. Mike is a local guy who made good; he's one of the few Postmedia employees who still draws an actual pay-cheque from the rapidly sinking conglomerate. He gets to work mostly from home these days, mainly because his bosses have sold his office building and put his office furniture in hock to stave off the hedgies for another month.
But that's another story.
In this story, Mike is fulminating against the commies, which I think is a must-do in the job description of every Postmedia employee, whether they be real employee or unpaid intern. So Mike wants to champion the plucky Canadian reporter who raised some questions about human rights in China during a presser the Chinese FM was having in Ottawa.
This is of course a very Canadian thing, to harangue others about their human rights abuses while remaining comfortably numb about our own human rights record. (See stats on native suicides, native incarceration rates, residential schools, etc.)
Nine paragraphs in, Mike drops the gloves with Well, OK. But here's what the US State Department report for 2015 says about China's human rights record.
Seriously? Come on Mike, surely the US State Department can't be your go-to source on the state of human rights in China?
Get outta here!
That's a question that arose as I was reading Mike Den Tandt's missive at the National Post re: China's over-reaching ambitions in the South China Sea.
Mike is all knotted up because POTHEAD has been making friendly with the leaders of that commie dictatorship in the most populous nation on earth, the People's Republic of China. Mike is a local guy who made good; he's one of the few Postmedia employees who still draws an actual pay-cheque from the rapidly sinking conglomerate. He gets to work mostly from home these days, mainly because his bosses have sold his office building and put his office furniture in hock to stave off the hedgies for another month.
But that's another story.
In this story, Mike is fulminating against the commies, which I think is a must-do in the job description of every Postmedia employee, whether they be real employee or unpaid intern. So Mike wants to champion the plucky Canadian reporter who raised some questions about human rights in China during a presser the Chinese FM was having in Ottawa.
This is of course a very Canadian thing, to harangue others about their human rights abuses while remaining comfortably numb about our own human rights record. (See stats on native suicides, native incarceration rates, residential schools, etc.)
Nine paragraphs in, Mike drops the gloves with Well, OK. But here's what the US State Department report for 2015 says about China's human rights record.
Seriously? Come on Mike, surely the US State Department can't be your go-to source on the state of human rights in China?
Get outta here!
Saturday, December 22, 2012
About those Syrian Scuds
They are in the news again today. The "desperate" Assad regime "may" have unleashed up to six Scud missiles against the al-Qaeda rebels.
Here's analyst Mark Perry in an interview from Al Jazeera a few days ago discussing Assad's use of the missiles. Note that while Perry refers to the use of Scuds as a "profound escalation" his only reference point is reports in the NYT.
Mark Perry is not a reflexive Arab hater like too many of the "experts" we see on the evening news. In fact, he was once an adviser to Yasser himself. He knows his stuff, but he doesn't actually know anything about Assad's use of Scuds.
And here's Joshua Landis' take on the Syrian Scuds. Like Perry he is well regarded and well connected in the Middle East. Yet all his insights into Assad's use of Scuds seem to come from the New York Times.
All of the Times' info about Assad's Scuds seem to come from unnamed sources in the State Department.
Which is not to say they're not true, but one should certainly not assume that they are.
The bigger question should be why is the State Department promoting this story? If they intend to not support the rebels any more than they already have, what is the point of publicizing this "profound escalation?"
The think tank here at Falling Downs believes that in the absence of verification from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and in-country
sources, the Syrian Scuds story is most likely bogus.
So why is the State Department busy spreading a bogus story?
At this point it is imperative that the US keep its options open. Boots on the ground will mean going head to head with the very rebels that America has winked and nodded into the country. Leaving al Qaeda in charge of Syria is a non-starter both in Washington and in Israel.
It cannot be allowed to happen.
These "last days of a desperate dictator" stories are meant to prepare the public for something the public has absolutely no appetite for.
Another US war in the Muslim world.
Here's analyst Mark Perry in an interview from Al Jazeera a few days ago discussing Assad's use of the missiles. Note that while Perry refers to the use of Scuds as a "profound escalation" his only reference point is reports in the NYT.
Mark Perry is not a reflexive Arab hater like too many of the "experts" we see on the evening news. In fact, he was once an adviser to Yasser himself. He knows his stuff, but he doesn't actually know anything about Assad's use of Scuds.
And here's Joshua Landis' take on the Syrian Scuds. Like Perry he is well regarded and well connected in the Middle East. Yet all his insights into Assad's use of Scuds seem to come from the New York Times.
All of the Times' info about Assad's Scuds seem to come from unnamed sources in the State Department.
Which is not to say they're not true, but one should certainly not assume that they are.
The bigger question should be why is the State Department promoting this story? If they intend to not support the rebels any more than they already have, what is the point of publicizing this "profound escalation?"
The think tank here at Falling Downs believes that in the absence of verification from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and in-country
sources, the Syrian Scuds story is most likely bogus.
So why is the State Department busy spreading a bogus story?
At this point it is imperative that the US keep its options open. Boots on the ground will mean going head to head with the very rebels that America has winked and nodded into the country. Leaving al Qaeda in charge of Syria is a non-starter both in Washington and in Israel.
It cannot be allowed to happen.
These "last days of a desperate dictator" stories are meant to prepare the public for something the public has absolutely no appetite for.
Another US war in the Muslim world.
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