Another Naval Brief- an update, only because it seems that at times, when a Brief gets published, something spectacular happens shortly afterwards.
US destroyers “USS Ross” (DDG 71) & “USS Porter”, (DDG 78)
"Freedom's Champion" the #USSPorterhttps://t.co/ASCIRW6T8s
— Naval Forces Europe (@USNavyEurope) April 7, 2017
#USSPorter, commanded by Cmdr. Andria Slough, fired Tomahawk missiles into Syria from the #Mediterranean Sea, Apr. 7, 2017. pic.twitter.com/gKqvWUf9Xj
— Naval Forces Europe (@USNavyEurope) April 7, 2017
were the US Navy warships that launched Tomahawk strikes at the Shayrat airbase in the Homs region of Syria. Yet, more than half did not reach their targets. In a nutshell, $88.5m worth of Raytheon missile hardware caused temporary mayhem & little damage but military & civilian fatalities. By the 8th April, the Syrian Airforce was able to carry flight operations again.
The 2 US warships are permanently based at Rota in Spain. I’d say that the Russians & Syrians would have been on high alert after the alleged CW attack in Idleb, especially so if the 2 warships had moved closer, past Crete or just off eastern Cyprus.
So Russia was ‘informed’ by the US, prior to the missile strike by being given a ‘deconfliction’ note. I can guess it was through low-key, routine communication channels, not at the highest level, thus giving little time for any meaningful political response, let alone a comprehensive military ones. It is hardly surprising that the Russian government subsequently decided to halt the Syrian joint ‘air safety’ agreement. The US strike made a mockery of the agreement, nullified any legitimacy of the agreement.
The US radars or systems on the warships that fired the Tomahawks, weren’t electronically jammed since they are believed to be too far offshore. Tomahawks use a combination of TERCOM system and INS navigation systems, (Terrain contouring Matching and Inert Navigation System), which makes harder to jam in the conventional sense.
Yet, what is noteworthy is that both Russia and the US have tested each other’s capabilities in anger, since it would be reasonable to assume that coastal based Russian & Syrian air defence did have a role to play in downing Tomahawks that night.
No doubt that there are a lot of assessments & debriefing sessions taking place. Undoubtedly, China will be taking note & watching carefully with wariness, the poor political & military outcome. perhaps it’s tolerance of US warships sailing in close proximity to its assets, will now be seen in a different light.
So, the shallow victory declared by the USA is somewhat diminished by the reckless attitude behind giving the go ahead to attack, as well as the poor result of the missiles themselves. Doesn’t bode well for future US Navy operations in hostile environments.
We are reliably told with seriousness by the US DOD that the U.S. Navy hit the airbase from where the alleged CW strike was supposedly launched & tracked by US/NATO long-range radar, without supposedly targeting any CW storage facility. That is erroneous to say the least, because at first glance, some containers seemed to have been obstentially for CW storage, yet other commentators state they are part of KMGU dispensers for sub-munitions, (BKFs).
Video of falsely purported “chemical weapon” containers at Shayrat airbase, now with subtitles from a helpful Ivan of /sg/. #SyriaHoax pic.twitter.com/WWJSUtNk4v
— Rike🦈Haferhügel🇸🇾 (@sibylrites) April 8, 2017
So the USA managed to target amongst others, some piles of old military containers to make it seem it was a strike against a CW storage facility. The online debate in social media over their use as CW containers, is still raging though.
Back in 2014, The OPCW declared that 96% of the CW stockpile had been destroyed, but it still conducts a fact-finding mission in Syria and said recently : “The OPCW cannot and will not release information about an on-going investigation,” … no word on Shayrat though.
NATO warships
The Beirut port call of the Spanish Navy, “El camino español”, NATO WARSHIP A 05, was probably connected to UNFIL. It then went to Turkey. In Spanish:
As mentioned in previous Brief, but now with a twist in the tail. No mention in the blog article why the Spanish are in Turkey. It may be linked to the fact Spanish have deployed Patriot missiles in Turkey for a couple of years now, but I’m not sure if they are still there.
Russian warships
Significantly, the frigate “Admiral Grigorovich” has made a hasty return to the Mediterranean Squadron off Syria.
You have wonder why it returned back to the Black Sea at the end of March , after just 1 month deployment in the Med. It then subsequently participated in the joint Russian-Turkish naval exercises.
That was an oversight on the part of the Russian command not to have a versatile modern warship permanently on station off Syria. The sea area that was previously home to the Russian aircraft carrier group now seems to be the location of the US Navy.
Additionally, the delivery of the sister ship “Admiral Essen”, (postponed due an accident), into the Black Sea Fleet, is now sorely overdue, although it is anticipated to be in Spring 2017. In Russian
It was announced by the Russian MoD that the Russian Navy Baltic Fleet corvettes ” Boykiy” and “Sobrazitelny”, tugboat MB-123 and oiler “Kola” of the Baltic Fleet have left port on an Atlantic deployment. This part of routine deployment by the Russian Navy, another long-term Atlantic mission that will take place, but with a possibility of a detour to the Eastern Med, not being counted out. In Russian .
The previous group of ships returned back from their Atlantic mission in October last year.
Russian budget
“More Armata tanks, but less warships” is the title of Sputnik’s articles on Russia’s 2018-2025 state arms program. The Navy losses out, but this is hardly surprising, given never ending technical niggles, the delays in construction, problems with shipyard practices and issues with suitable gas turbines. Ambitious projects such as building a new aircraft carrier might be put off indefinitely.
China
China now definitely sees that there is a reckless & easily manipulated person supposedly in charge at the White House. The US visit of President Xi Jinping will not change that thinking. It is only expected that Russia and China will become closer economically & in defence than ever before, for deterrence purposes. As I write, this article appeared online,
Likewise The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the US is “the most unpredictable state in the world,…” So expect more high level defence visits, joint exercises probably happening.
Finally
After all the endless rounds of aggressiveness from media, top politicians & chiefs, there are moments to recall real mundane events in exceptional times. In this case, it is the naval salutes to the Pyotr Velikiy by the Danish warship HDMS Esbern Snare, off Syria in 2014.
This is part of Operation RECSYR (Removal of chemical weapons from Syria ) back in 2014. The naval protection element was composed of Danish, Norwegian, UK naval Task Group, that worked alongside a Russian and Chinese naval Task Group. They protected the Danish and Norwegian merchant vessels carrying the Syrian CW.
Centuries old naval courtesies. Feels like this took place a century ago. Kind wonder if a NATO ship would do this nowadays off Syria.
Scott
An additional information
A failure of the celebrated “the best in the world” Tomahawk missiles to hit their intended targets cannot be explained by their age since their date of production being 2014-1015, as it’s indicated on the recovered parts. [Images of the parts are posted by one of the trustworthy Russian military and arms watch sources.]
US Tomahawks missiles used in illegal attack on Syria were made in 2014-1015, Conax lorida. Northlake En RAYTHEONhttps://t.co/f7zv9zVUZQ pic.twitter.com/t3WDHn93z4
— Vineyard Saker (@VineyardofSaker) April 8, 2017
Some of the poor US Navy performance to some degree could be attributed to a female touch.
@joejglenton Cmdr. Andria Slough, a commander of the USS Porter — one of the two Navy destroyers that launched cruise missiles on Syria pic.twitter.com/scKaXY4dzj
— Vineyard Saker (@VineyardofSaker) April 8, 2017
Ms. Andria Slough just recently got the US Navy and Pentagon involved in a very unpleasant situation in the Black Sea near Crimea, in details described by John Helmer:
“The US nuclear-armed missile destroyer, USS Porter, was steaming full-speed across the Black Sea in the direction of the Russian coastline, its Tomahawk firing radars activated, when a Russian airborne signals reconnaissance aircraft and three SU-24 fighter-bombers arrived in three waves.
The US European Command headquarters in Stuttgart announced that the incidents had occurred on Tuesday, February 14, calling the Russian flights “unsafe and unprofessional”, putting the vessel and the militaries of the US and Russia at risk of “accident or miscalculation.”
So, she is definitely making some waves. I am sure we will see her retiring shortly and running for the US Senate with credentials like these.
But, coming back to our missing missiles, most likely, as some Russian experts and my old pal, the Kulak, pointed out
“Only 23 out of 59 TLAMs hitting the target, even allowing for a few duds/engine failures on Tomahawks, sounds like the Russian ‘off switch’ since we have no confirm of S300/400/ Pantsir hit to kill or post defense intercepts it looks like Russian electronic jamming took down some of the missiles as after the alleged launch of a few test Tomahawks in August 2013…“
Thank you for your time
P.S. A bit of humor for you, guys: “Two suicide bombings in Baghdad.12 people died in a blast, many wounded…”
It has been said quite often on this website that all the US can do these days, apart from lie, whine and threaten, is to bomb from afar. Yet it was still quite a surprise when they hit Syria with cruise missiles. It should not have been a surprise as that is all the US can do, but oh boy, was it a surprise! Oh well, Iran and North Korea are probably next.
WWIII can only start with masses of troops on the ground, and with neither the US nor Europe willing to risk their own troops at the onset, all that the NeoCons can hope for is that countries like Poland and Turkey come to the party (Ukraine, Lithuania, etc can only cause minimal disruption).
Until those countries oblige, there will just be more bombings. Syria, Iran and North Korea should look at improving their own long range strike and anti aircraft capabilities to make things a bit more costly for the Americans, while at the same time diversifying their infrastructure and operations to make them more resilient to air strikes.
Just like nothing has changed with regards to US behavior with Trump’s election, just so nothing needs to change with Russia’s strategy. Just keep on attritioning those assorted ISIS characters in Syria while letting the economic and rapefugee malaise in the West take its toll.
Only a “surprise” to a large number of (now former) Trump supporters. This incident has unearthed some real surprises though, the position of Chomsky on it is a major one. I am disappointed, having lost trust in a formerly reliable source of well-reasoned opposition to US hegemony. I seldom copy/paste large amounts of text, but this is buried in a much larger article.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/04/the-escalating-war-on-syria-and-need-for-international-law/#more-66952
“Some of the world’s most famed political analysts have contributed to the confusion and lack of resistance as the war on Syria has continued. For example, Noam Chomsky on Democracy two days ago said “The Assad regime is a moral disgrace, the Russians with them.” Evidently he believes all or most of the accusations which have been said about the ‘regime’. In sharp contrast with Chomsky’s assessment, it’s remarkable that Syria has held together as well as it has in the face of attack by some of the most powerful and rich countries on earth. Over 100 thousand Syrians have given their lives defending their country against the onslaught. Russia has supported their ally in compliance with international law, continually trying to work with the U.S. coalition as a “partner” against terrorism. Evidently Chomsky is unaware or does not believe the extent of lies that have been created around Syria. Evidently he does not recognize the distorted and shameful media coverage mentioned by Kinzer. Everyone makes mistakes but Chomsky’s poor analysis here is a whopper. If he was to visit Syria and talk with real Syrians I think his perception would be dramatically changed just as described by the PBS Frontline crew here. With consummate hypocrisy, both Syrian and Russian governments are now demonized by western neoconservatives and liberals who have done little or nothing to stop their own government’s collusion with terrorists raining havoc and destruction in Syria.”
The Syrian people’s support for Assad sits at a a steady 80%. Ditto for Putin and the Russian people. No POTUS in the history of polls has enjoyed that steady level of support, only hitting occasional short-term highs. The graphs are misleading (it is Gallup after all), look at the charts at the bottom
http://www.gallup.com/poll/116677/Presidential-Approval-Ratings-Gallup-Historical-Statistics-Trends.aspx
noam chomsky was distrusted by Mike Ruppert – Crossing the Rubicon.
Mike was a real one.
The problem with Chomsky has always been that he can’t deny Israel. The problem for those nice Jewish people is claiming Israel as the Jewish state (a minor mispronunciation of the word Zionist) which they might eventually come to regret…..maybe about the time they start to wonder if intermarriage with lesser people might be the best way to reduce an epidemic of inbreeding amongst the ultra’s – seen one ultra, born-again, fundamentalist, neo, seen them all.
I’ve totally had it with the monstrous pig Trump. My first impression after looking into him at the time was that it was far more likely that he was Askenazi than German, But it was hard to tell because these yids go to great lengths to hide it, so you give him (rather Roger Stone/Steve Bannon and all) the benefit of the doubt. Also that fellow billionaire Heinz Ketchup came from the very same small village seemed remarkable to me. These assholes are slidden in front. It’s all the same mafia (Pharisaic Talmudism). They control the whole system since the 17th century. So Trump is not reckless and easily manipulated, but rather, as charlatan Chomsky, just another Jewish fraud (well, as far as I’m concerned he’s completely proven it now). See for instance: http://mileswmathis.com/trump.pdf
NT
Chomsky is a zionist “left gatekeeper”. He’s supported r2p nonsense, denied the israel lobby has influence and accepts official cover ups as real with regard to the assassinations in the 1960s and the recent terrorism falseflags.
“Noam Chomsky on Democracy two days ago said “The Assad regime is a moral disgrace, the Russians with them.”
Miles Mathis long ago outed Chomsky as just another spook. It was a little hard for me to accept since Chomsky was once an intellectual hero of mine. (Although mainly because of his linguistic research in so-called transformational grammar, a career which, however, he promptly abandoned to become the “best known American political dissident”). Not much of a compliment any more, this one is!
His comments about Crimea and now Syria are conclusive evidence that Mathis is right. What a disappointment! Chomsky has by now become an ancient fool. And there is no fool like an ancient fool.
Yes, agree. Noam Chomsky displayed his colors, bias and outdated rhetoric with Crimea.
Since then I’ve switched him off. He has nothing new to say and his stylized responses just sound plain repetitive and hollow. The problem with these “Democracy Now” types is they are caught in the headlights between the Clinton facts on the ground and the withered ideology. ‘Left’ is now left right out of future pragmatic relevance.
Chomsky’s generative transformational grammar was on my curriculum at university in Germany. I concluded it is abstract bloodless systematic wankery. Not worth anyone’s time. And yet it was on the curriculum rather than on the scrapheap of academic nonsense.
I fully agree with the assessment “liberal/leftie gatekeeper”. My brother in the US likes Chomsky. He hailed President Hopey Changey as the “first black president of the United States” and somehow seemed to think that colour of skin in itself implies goodness, having forgotten about Colin Powell. People feel better when they go along and get along with the System.
Miles Mathis on his struggle to revise his opinion on his teenage idol Noam Chomsky.
“I didn’t say he [Noam Chomsky] looks like a gatekeeper to me, I said he looks like an agent. A spook. It took me a very long time to figure that out. I needed to collate several decades worth of information to figure it out, and still I didn’t want to look at it. Why? Well, why does anyone resist changing their mind about something important, or resist losing a hero? It hurts. It hurts because you have to admit you were a fool for a long time. I was a big fool, since I wrote Chomsky’s name in for President twice, in 1984 and 1988. I was only 21 in 1984, so I have the excuse of youth, but it doesn’t help much.
This is how hard it was for me to look at: I have to admit that today was the first time I actually looked closely at Chomsky’s bio, looking for red flags. Yes, today. Even though I have been suspicious of Chomsky since about 2003, due to 911; and even though I have known he is misdirecting on that and other topics since about 2006; and even though I have been partially outing him for several years now, I have not wanted to really look closely at him even so.
I think what finally pushed me over the edge was doing my own research on Karl Marx. I never cared much for Marx, so he was easy to be objective about. It wasn’t on political grounds I was uninterested in Marx, since I wasn’t and am not a Capitalist or a cheerleader for the USA. I simply found his theories illogical. Even in college, I found him to be a poor philosopher, a poor economist, and a poor writer. That said, going into that research I had no clue Marx might be an agent. It was not even a thought in the back of my head. But it didn’t take long to come to that conclusion from studying his bio. Everything he did screamed “mole!” That big card falling then created an avalanche, as you might imagine. Unfortunately for Chomsky, his bio is inundated by that avalanche in many places …”
http://mileswmathis.com/chom.pdf
What do you want? When the ‘Tribe’ says pull rank, they ALL pull rank. It’s what they do.
Look at that celebrated lawyer Dershovitch, who’s leading the charge to make torture legal and normal for America to engage in. Counter to all human norms.
The Khazari’es are a dreadful people, always war-like, since they formed, around the Caucuses, ravaging their neighbors the Russ and Crimea. Even battles against Islamic armies of several Caliphates.. a tribe of former phallus worshipers -turned Jews-now, neoconservatives and liberals. Evangelicals in bed with Zionists on a collision course with the natural wave of humanity. The tide has turned, and for that, God be with us. Because it usually ends disastrously for humanity.
We shall see, but I think all the positions are being made now.
Not a single one of the “leftist/marxist” intellectuals have anything positive to say about Russia. Zizek & Chomsky are the most pertinent examples.
Chomsky is an old nutcase.
When I heard him cry about the Clima Change danger with wet eyes I knew he was a fake.
The Clima Change hoax is actually a beautyful case on how to see the difference between “Defined reality” and “Real reality”.
Defined reality is the 20-25 years with millions of hours spent on science discussions, reports, books, media campaigns, organisations, funds on complete nonsense about man made CC.
Real reality is Putins declaration about warming can be seen in 1930 where not much man made CO2 was made, why the conclusion is that the earth is into some normal planetary chance of its clima and we just have to adjust to it.
When you face real reality you can build your future forward.
Human Induced Global Warming served an additional purpose, it served as a shore story.
A shore story to make first use of nuclear weapons conscionable.
Even a regional exchange would create a global nuclear winter.
Thus, by pushing that red button you would saving the world.
When Hiroshima was bombed, in 1945, there was ONE WORD that did not yet exist. One word that makes the induced cooling of incinerating just a handful of cities a global nuclear winter.
That one word is PLASTIC.
The black soot from plastic…
I have also raised doubts before on this blog to call out the likes of Naom Chomsky, Julian Assange, Alex Jones and others. I’m of the view they are all on the US Govt payroll. They are what I would call ‘controlled opposition’, designed to slow or limit any uprising against the US govt by slowly leaking anti-establishment material so as to gain the trust of the public and pretend to take the government to task for the unpopular actions, only to lead them down the rabbit hole and ensure inaction.
Chomsky, for one, supports the official government version of 9/11. Anybody with such ‘moral’ standing and supposed ‘intellect’ would never accept the official 9/11 account as released. They would question some basic details like the collapse of WTC7… but I digress.
As for the other ‘freedom fighters’, would the CIA allow them to remain alive if the information they release would challenge USA’s quest for global hegemony? I would doubt that very much. There are many others out there, I’m sure. You just have to use some commonsense to question their opinions and purpose as they will reveal their true colors with time.
As for the argument about Trump being misled by his intelligence service… don’t be so naive. You don’t bomb places and ask questions later if you had any gray matter.
The American public now have a perfect opportunity to revolt against the establishment. Trump is a ware criminal and an abject failure.
Thank you to all who replied. I had read of Chomsky’s increasing inability to step beyond certain limits (all too common in US “progressive” punditry and journalism), but had not seen an obvious enough deliberate position that exposed this trait as seriously as it is now apparent. The rhetoric of his opposition seemed too strident given Chomsky’s book content and anti-war protester past, which had him blacklisted from all MSM and most “progressive” outlets.
I had not seen Chomsky characterize Crimea’s constitutionally, democratically leaving Ukraine and joining the Russian Federation as “clearly a violation of international law”. I would have come to my recent decision on Chomsky much earlier otherwise…
I take the general position that a renowned figure cannot be expected to be perfect in all matters. My main example is that Newton was an alchemist, but we don’t throw out his Laws of Motion. Chomsky should be able to see Crimea’s territorial transition was legal, peaceful and as a great benefit to the Crimean population. Probably the best example of “how to do” such transitions as the modern world has ever seen.
His statement on the recent Syrian events and his general inability acknowledge the legitimate authority stemming from *democratic* will of the Syrian people is beyond defense. Assad’s sustained approval ratings and election polling are higher than any POTUS or NATO/EU leader can claim.
I am saddened, but knowing the truth is better than labouring under a delusion.
Chomsky is Jewish, he does not believe in 911 hoax either, what can you expect from him?
D’you know what? Despite all the drama both in the MSM and our circles in recent days, I tend to agree with you. Even if the (((Trump Administration))) decides to play some brinkmanship with Russia on Syria, then I still see them being forced to back down by Russia.
And yes, Russia’s strategy in Syria is to meet NATO-GCC-ISR escalations in Syria, wear down the rats and as you so elegantly put it: “let the economic and rapefugee malaise in the West” do its work.
On the economic front, I will only briefly say this. This current economic expansion is extremely long in the tooth, and an inevitable crisis cannot be far away (within 1 to 2 years) The democracies are very fragile on this front.
You missed man.
US uses proxies and there is plenty willing to do the filthy work as sheeples and cannonfodder.
Ukraine is said to have grown 200.000 Nazi inspired troops willing to fight against Russia.
Saudi and Turkey have already declared their willingness to do the job in Syria.
S. Korea and Japan changed their legislation and military to suit as cannonfodder against NK/China. France, UK, Germany have all declared their lapdog support for destruction of Europe for US/Israel.
Poland and Romania population is in a class for itself as dumbheads and ready to do anything, and that means anything for a few dollares.
And we have still not talked about the 100000´s of Jihadist from everywhere, willing to blow themselves up for US.
I “took flak” from some of our Chinese posters for saying that Trump’s conducting an airstrike against a Chinese friendly Syria “while” China’s President was visiting him. Was an insult to China.I stand by that.It showed clearly that the US has no diplomatic “manners”.And couldn’t care less,that it insulted China. But now the important thing to see is whether China recognizes that or not. And if they do,what will be their conclusions about it.
They have two choices,as I see it. Either they conclude the US is so powerful they need to not “cross them”. Or they see that the US is so “crazy”,that only by further co-operation with Russia can they in the long term prevent something like that coming to their doorstep.What the US is doing to Syria,they would happily do in China.Stir up regionalism inside China. And foster terrorism in China’s border areas.While attacking China’s neighbor,North Korea,in the same manner Trump did Syria.Appeasement of the US by Russia hasn’t worked.And appeasement by China won’t work either.Countries with strong 1000’s of years old traditions dealing with aggressors find it hard to understand they face a different kind of enemy today.The US is imbued with an ideology of “the God given right” to police the World. And that no agreement they make “has” to be kept over the long run. Permanent,kept,agreements are only to benefit themselves. The Chinese idea of “win-win” agreements,isn’t understood by the US. They only accept “win” agreements for them. So in the coming days we will see which conclusion China took from President Xi’s trip to Trump’s US.
Possibly, but the North Korean thing could be a rouse. I mean — how many years have we heard about it and not so much as a fire cracker has gone off. Iran is threatened and has key people assassinated, geo terrorism, etc. Same with Russia. North Korea has jokes made about its leader. Quite a difference.
Many suggest North Korea exists as a tool to pressure China and several other places in the region. I see no evidence otherwise. I am happy to read counter arguments. Does anyone have one?
The plan is probably the 1970s Kissinger/Nixon project. The offer could be partial recognition of Chinese leadership in regional commerce in exchange for slowing down all support for and projects with Russia. 30 pieces of silver for acceptance of a unipolar world.
Chinese will attain dominance in the world in 30 more years via wealth. They are not going to grant unipolar power to anyone meanwhile.
The multi-polar leadership is their global ambition.
The Eurasian-New Silk Road/OBOR development is their 30 year plan.
And they know they have no hope for any of it all without Russia.
The uniques relationship the Chinese are building is against the threat of containment and/or destruction of their nation.
They trust no one from the West. They consider themselves a still-developing nation with more than half their people yet to taste middle class by their low standard of middle class (10% of the US standard is the Chinese standard measurement). 4600 USD vs 48,000 USD.
This attack will entwine them closer to Putin and the Russian weapons systems and it will encourage them to spend more on US Navy killing weapons. Hypersonic and Space-based systems on one level, more nuclear weapons (China has less than Israel), and more S 400 and S 500 (if the Russians sell them).
What I see ahead is redundancy from integration of Russian and Chinese defenses. The two will become more like a vast one along the Pacific coast from the Far East to Vietnam.
China will start converting the ships of trade into dual-use missile platforms. China has thousands of container ships and freighters that can easily be equipped with missiles launchers. Converting her merchant marine into naval power is easy.
Trump has shown his cards, his style of game and wins points for turning his domestic enemies into fans of his neocon attack.
But it would have to be a nuke attack against NK. To prevent a Peninsula War, the attack would have to prevent the NK military from crossing into So. Korea. That would take tactical nukes. Striking a decapitation blow is remote. The US just demonstrated it would need all 3000 cruise missiles to shatter Kim and the Communist regime and Military Structure.
Trump may go for that if talks fail to develop.
Cutting a deal with Kim would be very dicey. He wants tens of billions for his economy and won’t be giving up anything to get it. NK has yet to sign a Peace Treaty from 1953. They are not about to sign a surrender deal for some long term development.
The best that can happen is no tests of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads for some period of time with probably no inspection.
Libya was the big mistake. No one is ever going to give up WMDs without Russia or China standing with them. And neither stands with NK now.
The strike in Syria was primarily against the Deep State threat to Trump and the neocon demands he obey their ideology. It worked for this week. What will happen from here on, watch and listen. The blood is likely to flow next in Donbass.
North Korea Calls Syria Missile Strike by US ‘Unforgivable’
https://sputniknews.com/military/201704081052452551-DPRK-calls-US-airstrikes-unforgiveable/
“According to official North Korean news agency KCNA, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, “The U.S. missile attack against Syria is a clear and unforgivable act of aggression against a sovereign state and we strongly condemn this.”
North Korea has long considered Syria an ally, and Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong-un has expressed positive messages toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Assad, according to the KCNA, has expressed his desire to cooperate with Pyongyang as well.
“The reality of today proves our decision to strengthen our military power to stand against force with force was the right choice a million times over,” the KCNA stated.”
Both China and Russia do not want to see North Korea become another Ukraine. They fully understand that is what would happen should they abandon NK and the israeloamerican fascists have their way.
@stevenward I just posted something similar to you regarding your view about a deal between the US and China. I just read your comment, I share your fear.
Keep in mind that economically, demographically, financially and socially China is in far worse shape that some of the sinophiles neophytes understand: their GDP growth rate has tanked (officially 6.5% but in reality below 4% according to China economic experts interviewed by RT), a very unhealthy demographic profile with the aging population will soon be larger than working age Chinese (thanks to the idiotic and murderous one child policy), a huge distorted real estate bubble, a labour shortage (due to the demographics failure); Chinese labour rates are now higher than Mexico’s, too much dependence on exports and not enough of a domestic market and the huge liability of holding huge US dollar denominated cash and debt holdings (with a treaty breaking and law breaking power). China is operating on borrowed time and their financial fate is married to the US. They are desperate to convert the US paper they hold into tangible asserts. They are capable of taking a deal given their true vulnerabilities.
“…a very unhealthy demographic profile with the aging population will soon be larger than working age Chinese (thanks to the idiotic and murderous one child policy)…”
Perhaps in this case i do agree with you. However in reality all GDP figures of all countries are rather questionable. What we really should know is the growth of real economy. In case of USA we already know one almost shocking fact: US real economy has not grown since 1971-73 according Chinese studies. Only 28% of US GDP is nowadays real economy.
@steveward & Uncle Bob
President Xi says he’s understanding of the US missile strike of Syria (“after pictures of Dead children):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/07/us-strikes-syria-tensions-rise-russia-warns-damage-ties-washington/
@Uncle Bob
You completely on point with your views on this incident. If anyone gives you flak on this it’s because of their fragile pride being hurt. Denying the truth doesn’t make the truth go away.
I too said the same thing you said to the usual extreme Chinese ultra-nationalists here as well as an individual who poses as being Chinese but is in reality is likely a Pakstani since he simultaneously sympathisizes with Erdogan and tries to be pro-China. Instead of flak I got a lot of support from other readers. That’s because it’s a self evident truth that this missile strike was a slap in China’s face and President Xi lost face.
As I wrote earlier it is a clear telegraph that Trump and the deep state look upon China with contempt – a 3rd world low tech entity of no military consequence. You will note the in your face close shots patrols the US conducts right on China’s doorstep (China proper, not the South China Sea). The US doesn’t dare do this with a high tech military Superpower like Russia. Conclusion: The US respects and fear real military power but don’t give a damn about China’s paper holdings because Chinese held financial instruments and debt can be welched on and the Chinese can’t dump these assets without equally devastating damage to their economy and social stability. They do not consider China to be Superpower and they do not respect economic power that is not backed by military muscle or real technical prowess. In the latter 2 areas China is weak and Russia is very strong; and you can see the difference in attitude & treatment: with Russia they exhibit fear-born respect, frustration and hatred with China they exhibit fearless contempt and disdain.
I have another fear: I hope that Deal maker Trump and his Deep State masters don’t manage to make Xi an offer that he might take: The US will recognize your suzerainty on Asia, South China Sea, straights of Mallaca and the Indian Ocean region in return for guarantees for US client states Japan etc and if you ditch support for Russia.
The US is desperate to contain Russia and China is desperate to attain hegemony and sea lane security in Asia. Pragmatism in this context is a polite word for treachery.
It is hard to imagine that this is the path to victory for the US. China is known for playing the long game and making a deal with the devil and watching an ally burn isn’t likely to happen. The US is playing dominos with countries. I’m harkening back to Wesley Clark’s 7 countries bit here too. Do you think they are incapable of seeing the dominos fall with Iran, Russia and then finally them the targets?
@MikeH
I wish you were right, but you can’t dismiss the effect of greed and ambition and that every decision is a calculated risk: The Chinese may calculate that once they’ve achieved their goals in Asia, by the time the US attempts it inevitable double cross, America will be too weak and China relatively strong enough to deal with that eventuality.
So yes I do think that China can take a such a deal understanding, despite State Dept lies about its permanence, that the deal will only last 5 to 10 years.
Russia (under Putin) has a moral center the Chinese CCP does not, they are as pragmatic a power as you can find.
I really hope the long term thinkers and anti-militarist faction in the Chinese power structure prevails, but I have sinking feeling that they may be eclipsed.
Your comments about America’s machinations towards China and Russia is confused over the target of Trump’s overtures.
As William Engdahl argues, Trump’s program of “improving relations with Russia” has actually been a devious attempt to break the Russia-China (and Iran) strategic partnership by turning Russia away from these other Eurasian powers.
If Trump were to make any deal, it would be with Russia against China–not the other way around, as you insinuate.
The Dangerous Deception Called The Trump Presidency
http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO25Nov2016.php
It is doubtful that either Russia or China would take such a deal from America, given the USA’s destabilization campaigns against and military encirclement of these two nations; America has demonstrated that it would quickly dump any agreement and backstab its “partner” when the moment was opportune in order to advance its ultimate goal of preventing Eurasian integration.
That said, there is a rising great power in Asia that has effectively allied with America and US unipolar dominance ambitions, thus placing itself in opposition to multipolarism in all but name: India.
Stealthily under the radar, the American-Indian axis has been gathering apace since at least the Bush Regime era such as the 2006 US-Indian nuclear deal to the recent 2016 Logistic Service Agreement between two nations under the Obama Regime.
Taking stock: The US-India nuclear deal 10 years later
http://thebulletin.org/taking-stock-us-india-nuclear-deal-10-years-later9165
Is India Now a US Ally?
https://theduran.com/is-india-now-a-us-ally/
India and U.S. deepen defense ties with landmark agreement
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/india-and-us-deepen-defense-ties-with-landmark-agreement/2016/08/30/2e7e045b-e3c3-49ff-9b2c-08efaa27b82b_story.html?utm_term=.29365c013821
@Anon, I see you are catching on as well, well done.
I had no effective explanation to Uncle Bob 1 questions until I had a light bulb moment after I read TYS’s posts on this thread.
TYS’s did three things brilliantly:
1. He belittled China
2. He played up Russia
3. He put a wedge between the two by linking to a news article citing Tillerson said what President Xi said to Trump.
People of the subcontinent has perfected the geopolitical game of divide and conquer on internet. Their master should be proud.
Hi Kaal … we are here to discuss ideas and events not to attack other commentators … mod-hs
I have read previously that Russia was not exactly enamored with Chinese military capability and tech knowhow. Now its seems that America is of a similar opinion. Good insight there TYS.
@gT
Thank you. I really think we should always endeavor to question assumptions in all analysis. As well we shouldn’t ignore historical behavior from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the axis they formed with the US against Russia/Soviet Union under Mao and Kissinger. The current cooperation between Russia and China is a marriage of convenience and not necessarily one based on long term synergies. Group think is dangerous.
The fact that President Xi is still enjoying the facilities at Mar a Lago Florida with Trump (after Xi’s ally Syria was bombed) means that there must be something really compelling keeping him at the table. It is a worrying sign.
The proposition that India is opposed to a multipolar world and is a US is laughable nonsense, particularly now, since 2 weeks ago the US just stabbed India in the back: US Centcom commander submitted a duplicitous report to CONgress expressing concern that India was becoming too successful at isolating Pakistan and that this was contrary to US interests. The real treacherous US-Saudi ally and trained monkey is the Narco-terrorist mercenary Junta that rules Pakistan. Just this week the Saudis named Pakistani Army Chief of staff, General Raheel Sharif (an Islamist idiot that handed Pakistan a recent defeat) their commander of the Pan Islamic army. So we can clearly see that Pakistan and it’s establishment’s links to the empire.
China’s religious crack down on Islamic practices in Xinjiang such as the veil and the beard has caused violent protests in Pakistan.
Your point regarding a dirty ploy by a Trump to woo Russia to break solidarity in the security council between China and Russia has some merit, but you fail to grasp the following: now that Trumps overtures to Russia have failed, it is only logical that Trump will now try to appeal to the unprincipled and pragmatic impulses in the Chinese leadership in order to woo them away from Russia. That’s why I’m afraid some very sweet deals may be proposed to the Chinese who have hegemonic ambitions in Asia.
It’s not the first time that China sold out to the US: Remember the Mao/Kissinger pact. Of course China would be foolish to commit such a blunder, as history has shown, that’s nothing knew for them.
So Bob, it looks like I own you a explanation.
It is not hard to understand if you look at China and India relationship.India is actively counter everything China does, and openly state China is its number 1 enemy. Openly poke China in her eyes, even then, China still trading big with them, inviting them to OBOR, and want to keep on good term with them.
So America acting like India, biiiiiig deal. Even though America has bigger guns (but can not deliver 50% of missile to the target, produce own jet fighters (too old, or too new), bigger carrier (half of them not sea worthy, and in need of great effort for up keeping), big debt, but at least the history has proven America has to be successful, capable of introspect when at some point, a more rational establishment, and much less of a psychopathy(even with Trump as president).
Don’t worry about Chinese feelings, you can not change what others do, but you sure can control yourself. Same apply here.
Does it mean China do not who is a good friend, and who is not. Hardly. Just look at how Chinese treat Pakistan. From Chinese blogs, every thing I read full of brotherly love, and appreciate how hard they protect our engineer in Pakistan. As soon as Pakistan has their security under control, many of them will go there as tourist to help with their economy.
Here is what I read from Chinese blog right now:
Chinese language sites has everything about Syria and Russia, and Korea events.
this one: “Putin: US bombing of Syria is act of invasion” has 23846 comments. they are overwhelmingly support Russia and Syria. A few naive ones were taught some good lesson. Chinese seems do worry about if Russia can hold on. I do hope Chinese government can help out.
There also are items about American moving carriers around Korea, Trump want to put nuke in south Korea, as well as NK and Trump both refuse back down, and China need to make sure no outsiders swallow Korea if a war break out, and etc.
Of cause the official news item seems oblivious to everything that is happening and talking about positive engagement between China and America.:-)
Hope all these help your understand China a little more.
One more article to bring home the point. This one talking about the the history of nuke or trying to obtain one by North Korea. How US went back on signed agreement for nuclear disbarment with North Korea. No matter who has Nuke on Korea Peninsula, US win. Because it bring danger to China and Russia but not America (because it is far away). America made this happen without put a dollar, but by making one hate the other. “It shows how evil America is”.
So here you have it. Chinese know everything what is going on in the world, and many smart people, who is also well versed in history and geopolitical events, put out some very factual and balanced view.
» the history of nuke or trying to obtain one «
Dear J, this history is very different from what you seem to think. World famous and somewhat controversial German Führer Adolf Hitler, about 75 years ago, called the prospect of an atomic bomb a “jüdisches Schreckgespenst”, a Jewish Scare Spectre (or whatever a suitable English translation would be), something that has no reality and is only used to instill fear in others.
And well, Adolf Hitler was 100% correct. He called it “Jewish” because most of the people involved in this fraudulent science “just so happened to be” Jews. (Isn’t it just amazing? :)
When the world was “informed” about the atomic bomb in 08/1945, it was all really silly lies. Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been napalmed by Uncle Sam. They look exactly like other Japanese cities that were napalmed such as Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama. Evidence: contemporary videos, can be found on Youtube. Uncle Sam loves dropping napalm on women and children. As in Japan, so in Germany, so in Korea, so in Vietnam. The reason Japanese cities look flattened is that their flimsy houses back then were made of wood. Even Tokyo was essentially a wooden city. But if you look beyond the flattened aspect, you can see trees and antennas and other relatively delicate objects that weren’t burnt or molten away. How does that rhyme with the intense heat generated by the alleged atomic bomb?
Even the so-called “ground zero” (note: stupid terminology abounding whenever you’re dealing with hoaxes – 9/11 comes to mind) of Hiroshima’s city center doesn’t show any blast signs. Not even the bridges have been pushed into the river. To blur over the astonishing fact that there is not a hint of a crater the Usanian fraudsters said the bomb was detonated a couple hundred meters above ground “to maximize the damage”.
The silly lie was then copied by Stalin, who was informed in realtime about the hoax by spies, then by F/UK, and then by the leadership of your esteemed country, so that all UN Security Council members happened to have the bomb. Then by India, and then by Pakistan. And then rumours about Israel, Iran, now North Korea … blablabla.
You can download the Usanian propaganda movie “Trinity and Beyond” and watch with a critical eye. You’ll see the film fakery, model ships, model houses, also some real chemical deflagrations making a lot of impressive dirty smoke, with intrepid Usanian soldiers marching towards the mushroom cloud.
Our current leaderships have inherited this stupid hoax and think it better not to expose it. This is still the “world order”, after all. Same thing for ICBMs and manned space travel. None of it has any reality. It is only used to enhance the prestige and greatness of certain nations, make others look small and petty, hold sheeple everywhere in awe, divert lots of money to useless purposes, etc. Nothing good or great about it.
This shouldn’t detract from the Greatness of Russia’s or China’s current responsible and constructive leadership, nor should it deflect from the fact that F/UK/US and the rest of the “West” (some exceptions here and there, perhaps) is governed by despicable scum.
But it is my firm conviction that people everywhere should know about these stupid lies lest they be fooled or scared any longer.
Another corollary is, of course, that military scenarios that are deemed “unthinkable” because they would lead to “nuclear armageddon” are not so … So it is not unthinkable, for instance, that Iran destroy a Usanian aircraft carrier (which is nothing but an arrogant terror vessel full of terrorists). All it takes is the right missile hit in the right spot on the terrorist tin can.
Thanks Lumi, One learn something every day. However, there is no dispute on how dangerous nuke is. North Korea’s nuke program is vast, safety measure is low. If anything happens, it is a disaster for both Korea, and as well as China and Russia. It is stupidity of South Korea to push NK into corner, but it seems perfectly happy being US’s Puppet.
» there is no dispute on how dangerous nuke is. «
I assume you mean peaceful nuclear reactors, which work, and are a source of heat exploited to produce electricity via steam turbines. Maybe in China the issue of the industrial risk associated with nuclear power stations is treated adequately and on the basis of facts, but in my country, Germany, once the world leading producer of nuclear reactors, the issue is treated with the utmost hysteria.
For example, when the horrible Tsunami hit Japan, killing more than 10,000 people, the media, with abject sensational glee, focused on the relatively harmless sideshow of the Fukushima power station, where only two people were killed and some pollution did occur, yes, but really nowhere near the horrible destruction caused by the flood.
There is no comparable hysteria in, say, Russia or France.
And by the way, the Chernobyl zone today is a natural paradise where all sort of wildlife lives healthily and without any of the alleged mutations or whatnot. Contamination danger is limited to the immediate perimeter of the reactor. In hindsight the assessment is that the Soviet authorities overreacted and the most severe impact on human health was psychological as they disrupted a healthy community and forced people out of their homes and instilled fear in them. The only negative consequence is an increase in thyroid cancer, and that may very well be a screening effect (= they kept searching for it, so they were finding more than usual).
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/
“This was a very serious accident with major health consequences, especially for thousands of workers exposed in the early days who received very high radiation doses, and for the thousands more stricken with thyroid cancer. By and large, however, we have not found profound negative health impacts to the rest of the population in surrounding areas, nor have we found widespread contamination that would continue to pose a substantial threat to human health, within a few exceptional, restricted areas.”
I have to say I was surprised to see only two people dead, and was wondering if nuclear was as lethal as it claimed.
Lumi…
Nuclear energy and space travel are very real…I can’t even believe I’m writing these words…
Yes almost all the leading scientists on the Manhattan project were Jewish…but Sakharov…father of the Soviet Hydrogen bomb was Orthodox Russian…
Fact is that Jews have a very impressive record in the ‘hard’ sciences…especially physics…which is the most difficult discipline and where all the groundbreaking discovery took place in the early part of the last century…namely quantum mechanics…ie the study of atomic particles or ‘quanta’…
The Jewish emigre culture in modern times has been one of driving succeeding generations to achieve scholastically…we see the same thing today in the emigre cultures of the Chinese and South Asians…
The ‘hoax’ you have described is quite frankly lunacy…I can tell you this as someone with a lifetime technical background in aerospace…
Let’s not focus too much on the Jews, Flanker. The conspicuous concentration of Jews on the “atomic bomb” research cannot be overlooked, and Hitler pointed this out. The Jews are accidental, the hoax is essential. How is it done, what techniques are used, what is the purpose, why is it kept going?
You have a technical background (btw, no one disputed airplanes :), so be more critical with regard to fraudsters such as John von Neumann und Edward Teller, it’s not hard to see these are swindlers, Jews or not, doesn’t matter, Jewishness is accidental. Liars, swindlers and fraudsters can be found in any nation, not only Jews.
And Jews have accomplishments in many fields, I’m not disputing that either. Just so happens that one of those fields is fraud. But there’s also science and music. Cannot lump them all together.
By the way, I’m not disputing nuclear energy as you seem to imply. Nuclear energy is real and works and can be exploited peacefully. Just the bomb application is pure nonsense, which can be seen by anyone with a critical mind and some moderate technical or science background.
The thing is that as children we have been told the bomb is the world order (mutual assured destruction, nuclear deterrence, all that bombastic ridiculous Cold War nonsense) and so we’ve been fooled for decades (me too, until 11/2015) and as they say it’s easier to fool people then to convince them they’ve been fooled.
» groundbreaking discovery … quantum mechanics «
Oh come on. This is very esoteric and *purely* theoretic stuff that frequently gets revised and updated. There’s a whole zoology of subatomic particles. It’s completely unverifiable and has no practical application whatsoever. It’s a kind of alternative theology.
If you are so fond of Jews, then where is the Jewish record on stuff that works? On ships, trains, automobiles, airplanes, rockets? Just where it is? I cannot see it!
Not purely theoretical at all — you can buy this stuff. There are all sorts of practical quantum effect materials and devices.
http://www.mindsetsonline.co.uk/Catalogue/ProductDetail/qtc-pill?productID=56087588-e8f8-45ff-9684-36df2937cf9f&catalogueLevelItemID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Quantum tunnelling composite (QTC) is a flexible polymer that exhibits extraordinary electrical properties. In its normal state it is a perfect insulator, but when compressed it becomes a more or less perfect conductor and able to pass very high currents. Polymers loaded with carbon are, at best, only partially conductive. In QTC, the change from non-conductor to conductor is dramatic.
Pill size is approx 4mm square x 1.5mm thick.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tunnelling_composite
Quantum tunnelling composites (or QTCs) are composite materials of metals and non-conducting elastomeric binder, used as pressure sensors. They utilise quantum tunnelling: without pressure, the conductive elements are too far apart to conduct electricity; when pressure is applied, they move closer and electrons can tunnel through the insulator. The effect is far more pronounced than would be expected from classical (non-quantum) effects alone, as classical electrical resistance is linear (proportional to distance), while quantum tunnelling is exponential with decreasing distance, allowing the resistance to change by a factor of up to 1012 between pressured and unpressured states.[1]
Dear blue, if you read the description of this toy article, it’ll become apparent to you that the change in conductivity is achieved by compressing the stuff so the metal particles touch each other and current may flow. They gave it a fancy name for marketing purposes so little wonder boys will go “Oh whaow! Quantum!” And at a mere £0.48 it’s a real bargain considering you’ll get “a more or less perfect conductor”. Love it :)
I wrote a reply but it was lost or the mods canned it (maybe off topic?).
Anyway, I’ll repost it in feast cafe.
I think reality is important, even with non-directly-political things.
From the height of your lifetime technical background in aerospace you will be perhaps able to win the Anders Bjorkman’s challenges, at least those related to A-bomb and space travel.
http://heiwaco.tripod.com/cv.htm
Come on, several millions dollars await for your abscence of lunacy to grab them.
P.S. – I hope that this comment will not also be lost in moderation. It would be a pity; I used to think that the Saker’s antithesis was a bit more sophisticated.
There is one thing which infallibly unites the Demonocratic Empire and the so-called Axis of Resistance (that is, the variagated front which supposedly resist and fight it): the absolute, unwavering and incontestable faith in the existence of atomic bombs, spinning balls and space travel.
https://houseofmaedhros.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/lies-damned-lies-and-nuclear-bombs-spinning-balls-and-space-travel/
These evincible hoaxes (click on the links provided above) are sacred dogma both for the satanic cabala and those who allegedly oppose them (both share also faith in the chimerical beast called democracy). In fact, the antithesis always shares the axiom of the thesis; that’s the reason why it always lead to more of the same (satanic blob ruling the world).
The opponents of the Demonocratic Empire, who naturally refuse to call it by its proper name, are even more faithful in defending those sacred dogma, sometimes to the point of fanaticism. Now, it’s beyond dispute that those who share the same dogma, share the same religion.
This sharing is not necessarily willing or conscious, but it nevertheless results in the practical worship of the father of lies. Willing or not, for all practical purpose, they lead astray, far from the Truth, and the saddest thing is that they do it in the name of the truth.
It’s what I call the irresistible lightness of the world, this world, which keeps them prisoner with snares delving in the most deep recesses of their flesh, no matter how much their spirit is willing or how much they thirst for truth and justice. This world is still the only thing we are able to conceive (those snares entrap me too, under different aspects), even when we are aware of the gross, crass lie upon which it’s founded and rests.
Only the Lord has won this world, laying waste of those snares in His Cross and Resurrection. Whoever does not gather with the Lord, he just scatters!
Only the Truth will set you free, but the Truth is One; oddments of truth here and there will not do it!
@ UncleBob 1
I agree. Trumps missile strike against Syria was his pathetic parody of the Yalta conference preamble. The Russians won the 2nd WW and sat in the driver’s seat for the post war peace treaties and land allocation between the allies. For several months Roosevelt refused to come to the meeting at Yalta with Churchill and Stain and ratify the conference and terms until he had formal confirmation – the correspondence exists – that the nuclear bomb had been rushed to completion and would be publicly demonstrated. The Japanese had already surrendered and were drafting peace terms when Roosevelt had his military nuc two civilian populations in an act of flagrant and unrepentant aggression. He then sat down at Yalta in the drivers seat, and the rest is history.
This latest Syria fiasco was precisely this: an attempt to put the screw on China mid-conference. ‘Do I have your attention? Don’t mess with the trigger happy pscho.’ What is most telling is that the US is so utterly cornered in every part of the globe by serious opposition forces and vested interests that all it could do was let off a few fire crackers. Anything more and it would have started a world war.
It should be patently clear to all American’s by now that the ‘The art of the deal’ narcissistic, egotistical, cultureless, inarticulate, ignorant, crude, rude, talentless, rich boy is not savior material.
You white American’s are to Trump what Blacks and Hispanics were to O’Bama. A ticket to the top end of the trough. You’ve been fooled, again.
@ proper gander: Um, Roosevelt may have had the nuclear bombs built, but it was Truman who made the decision to drop them. Trinity, the first actual test was in July 1945. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were in Aug 1945… FDR died in April 1945, Yalta was in Feb 1945.
Trying to “fit” modern events into historical narratives seems to have become a favourite pastime here. First Trump is the same as Czar Nicholas, now he’s somehow trying to be post-nuclear Roosevelt at Yalta… nice try…
Thanks for the update, guys.
The zionazis tuppence regime “spokes quisling” threatens more attacks.
Trump Explains Syria Strike in Letter to Congress, Says More Action May Come
https://sputniknews.com/us/201704081052452101-trump-letter-congress-syria-airstrike/
“The letter, addressed to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), also stated that, “The United States will take additional action, as necessary and appropriate, to further its important national interests.
Analysis of evidence contradicts allegations on Syrian gas attacks –
http://theindicter.com/analysis-of-evidence-contradicts-allegations-on-syrian-gas-attacks/
Thank you LeDahu & Scott.
This to me was a very important paragraph:
“So Russia was ‘informed’ by the US, prior to the missile strike by being given a ‘deconfliction’ note. I can guess it was through low-key, routine communication channels, not at the highest level, thus giving little time for any meaningful political response, let alone a comprehensive military ones. It is hardly surprising that the Russian government subsequently decided to halt the Syrian joint ‘air safety’ agreement. The US strike made a mockery of the agreement, nullified any legitimacy of the agreement.”
There are so many comments flying around about Russia being informed and doing nothing. Look at how they were informed – this explains a lot. (I heard half an hour was given (via internet on morning.)
I am waiting to see China’s true response when Pres. Xi Jinping is back. They fully realise they are dealing with an unpredictable US – which is very dangerous. There were even calls to arm South Korea with nuclear weapons – utter madness.
This is the more important story:
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201704071052409370-erdogan-us-strike-syria/
Erdogan will be lucky to survive the year. He has stabbed Putin in the back for the last time, Putin won’t save Erdogan’s life a second time. Once Syria/Russia/Iran/Hezbolla is done liquidating any remaining Zionist/Saudi/US/NATO-backed terrorists (there are no “moderate rebels”, all the survivors of liberated areas says so), Turkey will be left to its own devices. The US/Zionists have no more use for the serial turncoat Sultan-wanna-be than they do for Assad, or had for “staunch allies” like Saddam. The Saudi royals will soon enough learn the truth of Niemoller’s “First they came for…”
The US will have to decide to leave Syria or face direct conflict with Russian forces as Assad’s army mops up the western areas and pushes east.
The US would do better to focus on getting its economic/debt house in order than launching missiles, because if Russia and China see no military sphere compromises soon, the benefit to not crashing the US/EU economy diminishes by the day. China and Russia can survive a world economic crash much better than the US$-reserve-currency/Bretton Woods/IMF/World bank/WTO/BIS/SWIFT system dependent economies. The Rothschilds don’t have enough wealth/influence to prop up the world economy, and all US$-linked central/corporate banks/gov’ts are massively overextended. About $200trillion overextended, and if Trumpy tries to repeat the 2008 TBTF bailouts, he will have open armed insurrection at home… Syria and Ukraine will be the least of Trumpy’s worries.
Putin and Xi are calling the Rothschild’s Zionist bluff.
Trumpy is merely another dupe occupying the Oval Office, and will take the blame for all this coming off the rails, win lose or draw. And we all thought there could be no POTUS more stupid and more easily psychologically manipulated than George W. Stupid.
You forgot the American People who supported Killer Obama Bin Bush
We don’t know what happens backstage, and most likely we newer would know. Because the Backstage is where the magic happens. : )
You didn’t know how truthfully you spoke:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/04/trumps-khan-sheikoun-production.html#more
Makes the original White Helmets scam-videos look like amateur hour… but still full of massive flaws.
Proves how out of touch with reality Trump and most world leader are.
don’t trust them. moa
Your choice, but most MoA material seems well researched and timely. The comments often do not rise to the quality of Saker denizens, but the articles are usually good.
This is still under my double check, but may help those who looks for proofs.
Surprisingly this is not a “backstage” and not “we newer would know”. The performance is so flawed that we, non experts, can see at front of CNN videos sourced from … Al Qaeda.
For example, syringe is never flushed. You better watch slow movement yourself.
That’s about March 2015, but seems very fresh research.
Here is an analysis of the video by medical experts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nj6fc69qjM
Here is the transcript with more revelations:
http://theindicter.com/white-helmets-movie-updated-evidence-from-swedish-doctors-confirm-fake-lifesaving-and-malpractices-on-children/
It looks like actors deal with babies like with bags of meat actually killing them. And this movie has been shown at UN meeting where fooled members shed tears on it.
I think theindicter.com is a gem group. People should build own or focus around such groups. Hard job.
There were antiwar protests around US, but people still say “Assad kills babies”. Does anyone tries to help people to be less misinformed?
The “kills babies” meme as a weapon of misinformation goes back thousands of years.
Biblical times: Herod was the “bad guy” cause he ordered for all newborn males to be killed.
His Intention, we are told, was to kill Baby Jesus.
Yet, with abortion and vaccination the US is doing an exceptionally efficient job of “killing babies”.
But that does not count.
What about the babies starving today in Yemen? Maybe they aren’t “beautiful”?
What about the 500,000 babies that US sanctions killed in Iraq? Madeleine Albright said it was “worth it” because US “interests” were at stake.
Some babies are “beautiful”, others are “collateral damage”….it’s a lottery… Just depends which side of “US interests” babies happen to be born.
“Violence can only be concealed by a Lie, & the Lie can only be maintained by Violence. … Any man, who has once proclaimed Violence as his Method, is inevitably forced to take the Lie as his Principle”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
How can western society survive when its entire relationship with the rest of the world is Founded On Lies; the 9/11 False Flag and every other lie that has followed it including the latest ‘Assad attacked babies with chemical weapons’ lie.
It is no longer any use blaming “them”. This is us!!
this is us ? not me buddy. Just because the US has been hijacked doesn’t necessarily mean everyone in the country is to blame…
its us and them as far as I’m concerned, and the ‘us’ belongs to the good guys – us –
I think its important for all of us to get clear on that.
Ann
At this point, to an outsider, the ‘not me buddy’ .. ‘doesn’t necessarily mean everyone in the country is to blame…’ comes over a lot like the ‘Good German’ meme (true or otherwise).
This is us yes!
You have to admit the guilt to understand how to react.
I have seen too many saying they were “concerned” which is stated in some minutes of meeting from when US invaded Iraq and saying they are “against it” the involvement in Syria.
Its like those Americans we meet in Europe saying ” I am not like my government, I am different, thats why I voted for Hitlery because I wanted change”.
The truth is all of you have been sitting on your chair with your thumbs up the last 25 years while all this have been going on and done nothing, and the reason why you “expressed your concerns” was that you wanted to double cover yourself:
Being passive, supportive toward the bad guys, and claiming you were concerned and against it toward the good guys.
Complete hypocrisy as is American culture of today. Admit it.
see this …..
John 8:44 New International Version (NIV)
44- You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
or yet……
Ezekiel 36:31-32 New International Version (NIV)
31- Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. 32- I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel!
Now check this out…
Bible-Old Testament / Exodus 22 : 20 :
‘You Must Kill and Destroy those whom worship another God’.
Quran 60 : 8
‘ Be Righteous and act Justly towards those who worship another God ‘ .
….now, throw the Talmud with such brutal wrath, greed and blood-lust and we have the predicament mankind is facing.
We will rise to the occasion. God will bring us forth , with strong leadership, which we see today in the Middle-East, Iran and China-Russia.
“War is the greatest injustice. We are not fighting the culprits. Those who pay, who incite, who use the media to make people turn against each other – this is who we should fight against.” – Alexey Mozgovoy, commander of the “Ghost” brigade, killed May 23, 2015
Scott, thank you for the update. I don’t understand what the Kulak wrote about in the last paragraph, concerning “the alleged launch of a few test Tomahawks in August 2013”
I don’t recall that event. There was a launch of two missiles on Sept. 03, 2013 that flew east across the Mediterranean before splashing into the sea. My understanding is that those weren’t Tomahawk missiles.
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2013/09/some-clarifying-details-about-this.html
Tillerson is still coming to Moscow to deliver an ultimatum some say. It may go like this when Mongo ..er…I mean Rex Tillerson gets there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwNJla8WvoY
You are really funny today UB.
k
On the contrary, Tillerson will have a message to give to Trump.” You might talk like a Donkey and walk like an Elephant in the US, but you can’t fool a Bear in Russia.”
By the way, if you want to learn something different from what you have been reading lately read this article from a well known political consultant living in Damascus, Syria since 2005.see below comment by JP for link to article.
Please watch the video at the end of the article, an interview with a russian journalist.
Things might be really different from what we commonly perceive from this mayhem.
JP you have already posted this article here – please don’t keep posting the same article over and over.Thx. Mod.
I expect Lavrov is sharpening his pointy sticks and polishing his ogre club — and is not in a very good mood.
too much violence to animals in that one – the brands on the flanks of that poor Gorgeous steer were no doubt real – and when he punched the horse, he probably did punch the horse.
UB
I think it’s getting to the point where exxon valdiz (tillerson), and the whole tuppence regime, are behaving like the Stacy Keach character depicted here, and will need to be dealt with by Russia, and the rest of the civilized world, accordingly:
Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean: Bad Bob the Albino
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yNM64VP2JBw
So the Captain of one of the ships was female. Great for equality! Women are war criminals too!
One of the errant missiles killed a group of 9 civilians in a Christian village not far from the base. Nice job, USA! I wonder how that will be reported in the western MSM /sarc.
https://syrianperspective.com/2017/04/christian-killer-and-draft-dodger-trump-flop-attack-on-base-disastrous-for-u-s-nothing-accomplished-by-trump-as-usual-fourth-tranche-of-rodents-leaves-al-wair-in-homs-in-white-buses-alq.html
Following Russia’s suspension of the Memorandum of Understanding over flight safety in Syria, the Belgians have decided to stop flights of their F-16 that form part of the Coalition of the Bribed and Coerced. It seems that ISIS now has a somewhat reduced air force – ooops.
http://rusvesna.su/news/1491676568
Sputnik noted the Belgian grounding also.
Belgium Halts Flights Over Syria Because of Suspension of Air Safety Memorandum
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201704081052452486-belgium-halts-syria-flights/
This is very good news. It indicates disunity among israel’s quislings.
Aside from the cruise missile taking out some Christians in a village near the air base, another crashed into the garden of a house in Karto, Tartus. The warhead did not got off, fortunately for those villagers. Someone released images of the warhead (the unusual shape matches that of the warhead in Tomahawk schematics). Other parts of the missile were found nearby.
https://twitter.com/MmaGreen/status/850263116600320001
You should read this article : http://www.voltairenet.org/article195904.html
Trump asserts his authority over his allies. Watch the interview at the end of the articles with a Russian Journalist. It may answer some of your doubts.
Where did the missing Trumpettes land?
The ocean.
They took 30-40 minutes of flight time to get to target.
Probably, the GPS guidance sent them for a swim.
You know, the Russians are masterful ‘hackers”, certified as such by 17, count them, 17 US Intel agencies.
Maybe a race is on beneath the blue by subs from Israel and US and Russia to gather up those miscreant missiles?
Where is Tom Clancy when we need a good military mystery thrill writer?
“One ping.”
If you recall the testing days of the US cruise missile, before it was approved it had failed 5 out of 5 times, including crashes in the Santa Ynez or Santa Maria or Santa Barbara mountains ( I forget which Santa received a direct hit) and one went off to Canada, but the Maple Leafers gathered that one. So Raytheon did a bangup job in the final tests. Congress approved and the military invented the use of swarms of missiles to cover up their failures, unlike the Russian Kalibr.
It’s all in the branding: Shock and Awe.
I shall borrow Saker’s term for the new brand name for the Trumpettes: flaccid.
Or in GI jargon, limp dicks.
We can be thankful for the corruption in the MIC. That attack could have been serious if Shoigu and Rogozin had been running the Pentagon the last ten years.
“It’s all in the branding: Shock and Awe.
I shall borrow Saker’s term for the new brand name for the Trumpettes: flaccid.
Or in GI jargon, limp dicks.”
LOL, L445, Friday I heard rush limbaugh’s radio vomit and there were a lot of adverts for products to help men with impotence. Obviously the ads are audience targeted. :D
I can see next weeks news buzz: Russia hacked our Tomohawks !
BBC/MI6 calling! BBC/MI6 calling!
If anyone is in need of a perfect example of a logical fallacy, this can be had from one Konstantin Eggert:
False-dilemma fallacy:
“Either: Moscow knew about the planned attack and condoned it – which means its co-sponsorship with the US of the 2013 Syrian chemical weapons liquidation deal was a ruse, a deception, and it therefore cannot be trusted;
Or: the Assad regime deceived Russia and kept some of its chemical weapons (or production facilities) hidden, to use them at will. Then it means that the Kremlin has zero leverage on Damascus. In the hard-power world of the Middle East one doesn’t know which outcome is more damaging for Russia.”
Also amongst other ‘gaggers’:
“Mr Putin doesn’t like – and doesn’t know how to talk about – “values”. He prefers “interests”. ”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39531339
Does anyone know who this Konstantin Eggert jerk is?
He writes fluently and his proganda while not sophisticated is a step up from the usual crude BBC tabloid fare.
I don’t recall seeing his name before and this all I have found so far:
“KONSTANTIN VON EGGERT is a Russian journalist and political commentator. He was a diplomatic correspondent for Izvestia daily in the 1990s, Moscow bureau chief for the BBC Russian Service in 2002–08, and deputy editor and then editor in chief of Kommersant FM in 2012–13. In 2009–10, he also worked as vice president for public affairs of ExxonMobil Russia Inc. In 2008, for services to the BBC, Queen Elizabeth II created him Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire. ”
By appointment to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, former Chief Propagandist for BBC/MI6
Nice to see diversity in the US military murder machine in the form of a woman commander murdering innocent civilians, some of them probably babies, but hey diversity is the in thing now !!
It is imperative for Russia, China, Iran, Syria to support hard left forces in the West. Support for false socialists like Bernie won’t help. And if you think the Right in the West will change the West’s attitude then you are wrong. Let me remind you that Nazi Germany was right wing and I don’t think I need to say anymore about that. The West when it had a traditional right(Catholic, Throne and Altar, more right of the nationalist right) ideology was still just as militant and expansionist. The Rightwing or the liberal “left” will not change anything. That only leaves the hard left(communist, anarchist) as a possible solution.
Sander has already tweeted about Assad today, he is Zionist plain and simple.
“Hard left forces” ? This is delusion. Such forces don’t exist outside, perhaps, of Cuba. The only such “force” I know of is the Greek Communist Party (kke.org) which seems to have good proposals, from the little I know. But the KKE has languish for years at 8 or 9% popularity despite Greece’s increasingly desperate situation and the astounding treason of all the other Hellenic parties, especially Syriza, a fake left party. All other Western nations simply do not have any “hard left” parties with any force.
The worst is the “hard left” “Socialist” Workers Party. On May 1, 2013, they published a statement of solidarity with the Wahabbi terrorists in Syria. I could not believe it when I first read it. Back in May 2013, the terrorists were getting defeated, so the (((fake lefties))) removed all fig leaves and came out in support of al-Qaeda. The nations supporting al-Qaeda stepped up their support and turned their defeat into a ghastly victory until the Russians and Iranians came along to help. There are 215 SOB’s who signed that statement, including some famous leftists. take a look at the SWP statement of support for al-Qaeda here:
http://socialistworker.org/2013/05/01/solidarity-with-the-revolution
You can greatly improve your vision if you turn the picture 90 degrees, so that instead of left versus right, you see the world as bottom versus top. In the big scheme of things, all the left/right distinctions are details of optimization, anyway. Nearly everyone wants their particular blend of social solidarity (safety nets, good medicine, and welfare) along with anti-leveling “incentives” to motivate people to make real accomplishments. There’s a lot more unity among the people than some “hard left” ideas will allow. The real problem is that the ruling elites control all social policies, and it’s worth noting that they have maintained power with left/right manipulation for over 150 years. Until we all remove the choke-hold of these elites over the peoples, it’s not going to get better.
Go out your front door, take a nice hike, and go meet a wider variety of people with an open mind.
Bottom versus top, don’t forget that. You will feel better, and maybe actually accomplish something.
That was very polite Cosimo.
I also had a suggestion or two for Jason, but reasoned that my offering would not make it into print .
:-)
You: “Hard left forces” ? This is delusion. Such forces don’t exist outside, perhaps, of Cuba. The only such “force” I know of is the Greek Communist Party (kke.org) which seems to have good proposals, from the little I know. But the KKE has languish for years at 8 or 9% popularity despite Greece’s increasingly desperate situation and the astounding treason of all the other Hellenic parties, especially Syriza, a fake left party. All other Western nations simply do not have any “hard left” parties with any force.
Me: There are hard left forces(communist) in Latin America(which is part of the West even if racist Saxons like Huntington think it is separate). Really for the last 50 years the left has grown soft because liberal capitalism clearly sees it as an enemy and therefore has to neutralize it. Don’t confuse the Marxist left with the liberal “socialist” left of today. Still for all their propaganda and scaremongering, Marxism did take hold particularly in Latin America but unfortunately the Americans and the Latin American rightwingers suppressed these movements violently and still do: https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/80469/
Russia, China and Iran need to counter the capitalist West within the West(Latin America and the European South, South Spain and Italy). In more Northern Western countries it will be a bit harder because these countries are the ones that benefit the most from imperialist wars also North America and Northwestern Europe are the economic core of the West. Also Greece is superficially Western but it is really part of Orthodox Christian civilization not Western Christian civilization.
You: The worst is the “hard left” “Socialist” Workers Party. On May 1, 2013, they published a statement of solidarity with the Wahabbi terrorists in Syria. I could not believe it when I first read it. Back in May 2013, the terrorists were getting defeated, so the (((fake lefties))) removed all fig leaves and came out in support of al-Qaeda. The nations supporting al-Qaeda stepped up their support and turned their defeat into a ghastly victory until the Russians and Iranians came along to help. There are 215 SOB’s who signed that statement, including some famous leftists. take a look at the SWP statement of support for al-Qaeda here:
http://socialistworker.org/2013/05/01/solidarity-with-the-revolution
Me: to be honest I don’t really care for what some first world newpaper(Socialist Worker) says. Besides since when has this newspaper’s form of Socialism represented all socialism? From what I’ve read in their about page is that they have general leftwing to marxist writers on there. So it isn’t necessarily a homogenous group. There is real socialism in places like Latin America and it will grow. Capitalism only guaranteed a nice standard of living while the USSR existed but now with this latter organization gone, the capitalists in the west don’t need social democracy or the welfare state.
You: You can greatly improve your vision if you turn the picture 90 degrees, so that instead of left versus right, you see the world as bottom versus top. In the big scheme of things, all the left/right distinctions are details of optimization, anyway. Nearly everyone wants their particular blend of social solidarity (safety nets, good medicine, and welfare) along with anti-leveling “incentives” to motivate people to make real accomplishments. There’s a lot more unity among the people than some “hard left” ideas will allow. The real problem is that the ruling elites control all social policies, and it’s worth noting that they have maintained power with left/right manipulation for over 150 years. Until we all remove the choke-hold of these elites over the peoples, it’s not going to get better.
Me: The problem is that I am not looking at the world but at one specific civilization/society, the Western Christian one. The world is not a unity but a mosaic of different civilizations(Western christian, Orthodox christian, Islamic, Hindu, Sinic). There is hardly any unity among “the people”(how vague), a blue collar worker in the US will show more solidarity with a capitalist like Trump then with an immigrant worker, so much for your “bottom vs top”.
Jason:-“There is hardly any unity among “the people”(how vague), ”
Dare I suggest that the 99.99% that is “we the people” , are united in the view that the other 0.01% own most of most everything?
There is no “we the people” just a huge unorganized mass that is divided along stupid nationalist lines. How convenient, you just ignore the fact that many blue collar workers supported a capitalist than support immigrant workers and workers in developing places(China, the various countries of Latin America and Africa)who make their first world consumerist society possible. Likewise for supporters of Bernie that sly imperialist.
Your elitist tendency is noted. Clearly you , being more equal than most, are not of the people.
But your simplistic analysis is really not worth the candle.
It matters little whether the present power structure is described as a plutocracy, a gerontocracy, or a theocracy even: the effect on the majority is the same.
Even in the Athenian democracy there was the distinction between the idiot and the citizen. The Christian church proclaimed the equality of all souls before god but they knew that some would go to hell. An unorganized mass may disrupt but it won’t carry out a revolution. Keep hoping. But you can bet your ass that organized communist groups/states in Latin America as well as left leaning separatist groups in Western Europe(like in Andalucia, Sicily etc) supported by Russia, China and Iran would make the US establishment nervous.
@Cosimio
Thank you for an excellent post and providing us about the insight of the treachery of the World Socialist org and website. Your insights about the true wish of most people (safety net but also competiton and open opportunities), is, in my opinion, spot on.
The US, Russia, and China will never go to war. I know this is hard to hear for some folks, but its the truth. Do you really think Russia or China are going to war over Syria? Russia did not go to war over Ukraine. What makes anyone here think Russia would launch a nuclear strike because of Assad? Russia is going to cut a deal with Trump, to get Assad removed, Jinping already saw that Kim Jong Un is not a good trading partner. So I think we all know where that will go. Xi Jinping will accept a Korean unification, and will act with the US to remove Jong Un, and establish a trading partner in a unified Korea. Jinping has all his money tied up in US bonds, he would never go to war with USA. As for Putin, does noone here realize that Russian oligarchs live in England and have interests in USA? Does anyone actually think for a second that any of these leaders own gold bullion themselves? Who do you think is calling the shots in Russia? This analysis is a waste of time, these news sites is causing mass hysteria and cognitive dissonance because it is creating the belief that these countries are enemies. There is no communism, they are all capitalists, and capitalists care about mulah baby. That means Putin and Jinping are the class counterparts to Donald J. Trump. The USA is the bank for the rich people in the whole world. Everyone has money tied up to USA somehow someway. That means the USA will never be attacked, and will always call the shots. Russia is not Soviet Union, these guys in the Duma and in the Kremlin have serious money. Jinping is no Mao Zedong, the dudes got cheddar and it stinks! We are all fighting over nations, when we do not realize that we are united by CLASS… The leaders will play the game and make us believe they are more than pawns, but the truth is, united across borders we can have a New World Order they would only envy. Sorry but the world order will continue and the show must go on– Putin will not move, Jinping will smile for the cameras, and Trump is going to be Trump… Wonder how much Merkels account is at over in Monaco…
Ok. Interesting view, with a plausible argument. Two replies:
1/ Yep, “they” all have serious money they won’t ant to lose. And they won’t. The have Trusts and other “financial instruments” to protect (and grow their wealth) during war.
2/ 100 years ago the “conventional” “no war” view: there won’t be a war, because “they” are all related.
And it was true – all the European monarchies were cross-bred. It seemed improbable the familial connections would not stop war.
One “reason” for WW1 was the bankers wanted to eliminate the monarchies.
One “reason” for WW3 is the bankers want to eliminate nation states and personal and national sovereignty. They are aiming for a “Greater Israel” an Intermarium, with the rest of the planet in servitude in small controllable statelets.
You are wrong ! The main reason why Putin didn’t go to war over Ukraine is the brotherhood blood would be spill off, and future chances over annexing Ukraine gone for good.
There were good reasons not to go to war with Ukraine, and results of that policy are being seen now.
The US/empire is presenting existential threats to Russia and China, and there are lot of reasons for actions in the world besides money. Trying to reduce all motivation to money and profit is a huge blind spot in capitalism, but everyone is not wedded to capitalism — and even then, financial motives are often not what they seem on the surface after a bit of analysis, which many people are quite able to do.
Many people will take actions even when it means they will lose their lives from it, much less money. A bug problem with Americans, and members of the empire, is that they think everyone is and thinks like they do.
We’ve been hearing the “Putin will cut a deal over Assad” theme since early 2011. What do you think is taking him so long?
All those Russian oligarchs now living in England are the first generation oligarchs who had to leave Russia after Putin became President.
Second generation oligarchs live in Russia and respect the authority of the state because they have to. There is a problem and a danger because the children of the second generation are being educated in the West. But there’s reason to hope that these children will not swallow the West’s Kool-Aid. Consider that Dr. Elizabetha Glinka (Dr. Liza) got her medical degree in the US and worked for a few years in the US before deciding Russia needed her more. Consider Valentina Lisitsa, the fantastically talented pianist. She grew up in Kiev and trained under the Soviet music system. She and her friends disliked what they saw as Moscow’s condescending attitude. With her parents, she moved to the US where she built a life for herself. At first, she supported the Maidan – and quickly woke up. Now, she is a strong voice for Novorossiya.
I think you have a lot of valid points. One must indeed understand that all of these countries including Russia and China handling this situation as a matter of national interest and not because they feel they have to stand tall against the evil empire in the name of humanity. But, you should accept that there is no practical difference on the ground. Indeed, if not for Russian military the jihadis would have already murdered hundreds of thousands of alawites and other non-sunnis already.
However, you should remember that WW I was fought among capitalist countries as well and there were indeed irreconcilable differences. Same is today. US wants global hegemony and others reject it. The conflict is real and US is not willing to accept anything but full subordination, thus inevitable war.
Indeed, Putin was ready to play ball with US especially at the beginning of his first term and increasingly saw that there is no way US would consider Russia as equal partner despite all the concessions Russia has been making since the collapse of USSR. He still sticks around with his Oligarchs but that also will have to pass because (as you also pointed out) Oligarchs have a tendency to consider their personal and short term interests rather than national interests. Thus, the so called 5th column and their economic model will have to be thrown out eventually.
So no, either US will have to retreat or there is going to be a war as neither Russia nor Iran nor China can afford to lose more grounds.
Trump’s ‘Rambo-Style’ Behavior May Result in a New ‘Cuban Crisis’
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201704081052449956-trump-rambo-style/
“The expert stated that he is not surprised about Washington’s military activities in Syria, as it is “the usual way” in which the US starts wars in other countries.
“This ‘Rambo-style’ behavior of the US president, unfortunately, once again puts the world in front of an accomplished fact,” Wimmer said.
“The current dramatic situation offers an opportunity for the Russian and US heads of state to meet as soon as possible. People are afraid of a global war, a Third World War, and their worries are justified. Many observers point out that the current disastrous situation is very reminiscent of the Cuban crisis. This makes it clear where we stand. And we have to put an end to it! Now there is a good chance to appeal to reason,” the expert stated.
Answering the question of whether US President Trump is likely to pursue a similar strategy in other conflicts worldwide, Wimmer said:
“We know that since the end of the Cold War, the US has chosen a new consistent strategy: they are striving for global domination. They even talk about it openly.”
“One can only look with deep respect at Moscow that has such a sensible president, and not such an unpredictable head of state as Trump. We can assume that US actions can make many countries feel provoked. This is a fact,” the expert stressed, adding that further escalation should be prevented as soon as possible.”
Friday I had the misfortune to be within earshot of zionazi faggot radio (clear channel conservative talk radio), and they were all pushing for war against Syria, praising trump for attacking, claiming obama was a coward for not doing mquislings
The neocon traitors, of which trump and all the tuppence regime are, are going all out now. It’s very clear that this doubling down was planned regardless a trump or clinton regime, and both of these teams are very willing to serve their designated roles for the israeli massa.
Russian military electronic countermeasures brought down the majority of the Tomahawks launched the other night. Russia and Syria both have had their anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems on high alert since the Israeli strike just recently.
One Israeli jet was shot down, and rumor has it it was an F-35 stealth multirole jet. Another one was damaged and two were able to evade.
There have been reports that Coalition aircraft and Israeli aircraft have had their pilots experience ‘cock-pit blackouts’ where electronic systems are rendered usless for a duration ot time. The clever Russians only turn them on for less than thirty seconds and off again, so the Israeli and U.S. cannot break the system/technology newly discovered by Russian scientists. And we all know when Russian scientists get busy, big things happen. Big things.
Anyone remember the incident in the Baltic Sea not long ago, where the U.S.S. Donald Cook was likewise rendered useless by 2 Su-24’sd that shut the ship down electronically, while the jets enjoyed total liberty to make aggressive passes at it at will. The sailor all clamored on deck and were taking pictures instead of maning battle stations. When said ship made its next hastily ordered docking, the whole crew were discharged. Ordered not to mention what happened nor speak of it no no one. I’m sure there was a big heap of soiled underwear on that ship when it docked.
The Israeli’s are incensed that they have been warned in no uncertain terms that they are to cease and desist when it comes to Syria, or more jets will be hit, stealth or not.
Now Russia has withdrawn from the memorandum of flight protocols over Syria, Russia can now bolster its air/ defense and keep everything on high alert. There are Russian personel all over Russia, which makes the other days strike as all the more reason to call Washington and Tel-Aviv’s bluff.
The mood in the U.S. makes it unwise to embark on a regional/major engagement with Russia over Syria. Sooner than later there is going to be a run of the table in both Syria and Iraq, Iran is likewise in a great position. For those 6 jets Syria lost to the strike, by the red headed rat bastard Trump, Syria will have them replaced with new jet, expressed straight from Russia. Every tank the Syrain Arab Army , every bullet, truck, rpg, apc…gets replaced ina matter of weeks.
For all we know, China could be paying the tab. It would be easy for them to do this. The can be ‘silent partners’, and ones with economic muscle -big time.
China plans to go full speed ahead with its One Road, One Belt initiative, and want calm, not yet more belligerence from both Israel and the U.S., whom are both run by the same school of thought. Zionism, Zhazari’s , east European/Russian so-called “Jews’!…control both Tel-Aviv and Washington, and by way of ecomonic extortion and blackmail, have infected Europe as well.
Anyways, the other days strike by Trump and co. is just desperation. Time is not on their side. The future is headed east.
“For all we know, China could be paying the tab.”
I am not sure if it is the case now, but from what I read, when Pakistan was in the war, Chinese helped them with everything they need free of charge.
BREAKING: US moves Navy strike group towards the Korean Peninsula
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/breaking-us-moves-navy-strike-group-towards-the-korean-peninsula/
Trump is putting Korean Peninsula on tinder box too.
These US navy types seem a bit scatterbrained.
Another here
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-usa-idUSKBN17A0QD
U.S. Navy Admiral Michelle Howard said on Saturday U.S. cruise missile strikes on an air base in Syria had destroyed the means to deliver chemical weapons from that base, and the U.S. military remained ready to carry out further strikes if needed.
Howard, the four-star officer who leads U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, told Reuters the United States had decided to launch the strikes after the United Nations failed to pass a resolution condemning a deadly chemical weapons attack that killed scores of people in rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun.
Admiral Howard pic
http://www.velvet.by/files/userfiles/309/velvet____2_121.jpg
Howard said the integration of the strikes was “flawless” and showed the ability of the U.S. Navy to project power around the world.
Only 23 of 59 cruise missiles made it? That’s flawless?
“The intention was to take out the airfield and to remove the means of the delivery of chemical weapons. I feel that was accomplished,” she said.
And the control tower, taxiways and two 3,000 meter runways were not hit and the airbase was back to operations within 24 hours?? Mission accomplished??
But I suppose in a deceptive way she is correct, in that the delivery of chemical weapons is no longer there because it never existed in the first place.
the targets were hit, we just haven’t been told what they really were. 36 missiles don’t just miss if the Russians are not actively trying to stop them.
There is footage of ‘misses’ in a nearby village. from the little I have seen, it’s not overwhelmingly convincing as direct hits but if true might explain the missing 23 cruise missiles.
Alternatively each target may have had more than one missile assigned to it, although one could question why, as none of the targets were strategic and I have not seen this explanation from the Trumpster’s USA. The latter explanation would reduce embarrassment for them but that window of opportunity fades quickly.
Apparently almost nobody in Trumpsterland is able to entertain the possibility that false-flag Sarin might have been imported from those terrorist mothership countries such as Saudi, Qatar or Turkey. Turkey was accused of producing and exporting Sarin to Syria on previous gas attack occasions.
This, of course, assumes that the whole Sarin gas episode wasn’t a White Helmets fake production using actors and all the previous ‘moderately killed’ dead bodies that they have in abundance.
Zero need for the leaning towards chauvinism…’feminist touch’. Would you have written masculine touch if it were a man? I highly doubt it. And would those war ships be fully directed by their suprerios miles away from the conflict zone, not the commander is any individual shop unless forced to take evasive action or engage, yet even these orders would have come from elsewhere previously. So why the chauvinism? To whom are you expecting to appeal?
Johan nagel
So far, of all US and NATO ships that visited the Black Sea, only USS Porter under the command of Andria Slough was caught with its pants down doing the following:
“The US nuclear-armed missile destroyer, USS Porter, was steaming full-speed across the Black Sea in the direction of the Russian coastline, its Tomahawk firing radars activated..”
As far as I know, the commanders of other ships were men.
Maybe, she is compensating for the lack of an external procreation organ, or she hates Russians so much that she is ready to use missiles against Crimean towns and villages, like she used them against Syrians. I don’t know. I am not a psychiatrist.
No, I am not trying to appeal to anyone. I am trying to control myself in expression of my wrath towards this creature you call a woman. I also have made no commitment to “politically correct speech.”
By the way, if at some point in history some court would decide that the US ongoing war on Syria is criminal, I will be very happy to see Andria Slough in jail for her war crimes.
You wrote: “And would those war ships be fully directed by their superiors miles away from the conflict zone, not the commander is any individual shop”
The men and women serving in the US military know that they have no duty to follow the criminal and illegal commands of their superiors. If they do, they become war criminals, themselves.
You have merely confirmed and worsened my suspicion of your chauvinism or perhaps plain sexism. By quickly jumping to lewd allusions to genitalia.
My point was and remains strengthened by your puerile response, that it lessens the value of your reportage to let yourself down with sexism/chauvinistic smarminess.
I make no differentiation between gender when it comes the the minions of the anglo-zionist war machine minions, yet it is of comical interest to you.
Nowt to do with politically correct speech, everything to demeaning yourself and the site with sexism/chauvinism.
Male or female, those in the armed forces of the US army are en-masse and colectively guilty of crimes against humanity in every conflict they enter.
Now if you are highlighting Slough for you believe her some kind of renerage? Who went against orders and charged across the Black Sea through her own zeal and decision, with everyone else around her falling into line? Then, okay, I understand, and this is an interesting point. Seems hugely far fetched…hence she was not long after of the coast of Syria, following orders and firing on command into Syria. So the reality is, you come across as a sexist or chauvanist, which I am not accustomed to finding within the editorials on this site.
Also, I believe you are expressing narrow mindedness in other areas…not all soldiers fighting for the US (or the Uk for that matter, numbering several I have been close to over the years) deeply or even ostensibly hate those they are sent to fight. They are not far removed from the millions sitting at home looking at pictures of gassed babies and saying ‘that horridly evil dictator. we must d something!’…in short, they are more dumb and naive and easily led than evil haters. Show enough men or women with guns images and footage of dying, agonisingly suffering babies and tell them it was HIM, many will shoot HIM without much more encouragement. This comes down to a far more complicated logic than you have asserted. As in you only attack people you hate. I am no psychiatrist either, yet I have a fair understanding of the human condition and do not paint humanity as black and white as yourself…
@John PC
Many countries have both male and female in their military.
In looking at the female US officers involved in the US missile strike on Syria, both seem to have been promoted on political correctness rather than aptitude.
In a post above, I have posted the Admirals brainless comments on the strike, and many pics of her can be found on an image search.
dear Scott – just ignore it. We have alot of fun and it didn’t even occur to me, what Nagel is saying.
Thanks for holding the fort so delightfully when Saker is busy as he often is these days. I mean what would we do without Scott ??
Agree 100% Ann. Why on earth anyone wants to troll Scott around here is beyond me. Besides, the debate over the last 24 hours has been superb. The perspectives from all over the world are invaluable and unique. A troll is a troll and I pay them no mind.
Johan Nagel
You wrote: “do not paint humanity as black and white”
I know very well who is pushing this “the world is many shades of gray” meme.
You are expressing typical views of a social justice warrior. Since SJW is a cult, I could deprogram you, theoretically, but it would take too much time, and I would need your sincere desire to start thinking in a clear and rational manner.
I will try. nonetheless, to level with you and explain to you in a language any SJW should understand: If I wanted to be “politically correct,” I would write for money. At this juncture, I strive to be factually and analytically correct.
An ongoing battle between good and evil paints the world in black and white. You’re either on the side of good, or you’re evil.
Nowt to do with sides, all to do with objectivity.
I am one of the least politically correct people I know, hence why I have a calendar of Vladaimir Putin on my office wall at work in the local government council here in Melbourne, and rant often and always rabidly against the drones. I also write of the same. And spread my wares far and wide. On this score your tendency to instantly label me a social justice warrior seems…bemusing and plain wrong. For I do not think or assert that my views on comrade Putin or Surkov or Lavrov makes me morally superior to anyone, at best and worst, simply more aware of the ways of the world to the majority of my Western drone kinfolk. Given the platform you are afforded, you should know better than to adopt such a paltry stance alongside the somewhat amusing arrogance of your ability to ‘de-progam’…ALthough perhaps that was an attempt at humour, I simply missed?
I will ask you in turn to attempt to adopt a decent and rational manner, for there are plenty of women I know, whose views of the world are very much in line with my own, and whilst they would enjoy most of your reportage, singularly as it is a different, well researched episode to contrast the MSM, many would baulk at such comments as :
‘Maybe, she is compensating for the lack of an external procreation organ, or she hates Russians so much that she is ready to use missiles against Crimean towns and villages, like she used them against Syrians. I don’t know. I am not a psychiatrist.’
I often find myself lacking enthusiasm to focus on the The Saker’s religious context, yet I understand how important it is to do so, for religion plays a massive importance for both the Orthodox church and the Zionist pillars on top of the power pyramid, yet I have once found any assertion or opinion he has expressed racist or sexist. And so my value in his words remains huge.
No doubt the sycophants encourage, but you strike me as an intelligent enough chap to understand my point. Though instead prefer the weak option of labelling me part of a cult. This is the kind of nonsense which puts right minded folk off delving deeper into the more valuable parts of what you share. I can but hope that you ponder this, rather than respond to a legitimate criticism with puerile insults.
Johan,
You may not be a full-fledged SJW, but you have clearly been triggered in some sense as this feminist wordplay suggests. You are making a mountain out of a molehill. Please let Scott choose his own words, and let potentially offended women decide for themselves what he’s trying to say.
@Johan Nagel
no but Scott does have point: You have been conditioned to get triggered if someone says something blunt, truthful and offensive about the charicture of womanhood the West has created in the form of the hateful demented template of the female feminist idiot. Such conditioned idiots are exemplified by morons like Susan Rice, Samantha Powers, Nicky Haley (queen of stupidity, gold level useful idiot of War Mongers), Andrea Slough and any other unqualified overly aggressive affirmative action appointee in the US power structure.
It’s fair to bring up her gender because gender played a role in getting this hysterical cow appointed into that position of responsibility. It’s fair to rain scorn into her because it’s provable that she’s reckless & incompetent, that she definitely received the Commision due to female quotas, and that she exhibited the worst flaws we seen in women when they’re on a power trip. Men also have bad stereotypical behavior in other situations, but, Cap’n Slough exhibited the one typical of women. Your conditioning had blinded you to consider these possibilities. That’s my interpretation of what Scott meant by a cult.
It’s great that you broken the conditioning regarding geopolitics and God bless you trying to fight for fairness regarding the empire’s crime, but you should consider other aspects of conditioning and “truth” that the Western lie making machine has embedded into you thought processes. This site will do an excellent job of that.
I am close to shocked how quickly the flock bleats in unison and yet you are suggesting I have been conditioned. The irony is not lost on me…
I am always truthful, renowned amongst my peers as been blunt, and often taken as offensive merely for telling the truth, so again, the analysis of my character is bang out of balance with reality.
I am not defending Slough, nor raising the fist of spastic feminism. You have really projected that towards me to suit your own arguments. Which is as common as it is weak. Especially for those who consider themselves somehow bathed in the light of awarness and revelation. There is plenty of logical, brilliant reportage floating around if you peek hard enough. The Saker’s work is consistently superb, above all his military analyses and I do not expect every other who contributes here to hold to his level of decency.
My point was merely that such comments as I quoted smack of puerile chest beating, the guy with cracking jokes for the lads in the locker room, who laugh because they are conditioned to laugh at one raised above themselves, who leads with their knowledge and social standing. That is classic conditioning. And it caused distaste, no because of any social conditioning on my part, I simply despise such cretins. Which is nowt to do with feminism. As for Rice, Power, Haley and Clinton, I would happily see them flayed. I am no feminist and whilst I do like the ideal of equality it seems impossible globally for different cultures hold different ideas of power balance between genders. I am however, far more tolerant of homosexuals than some folk here present now and then…And I am not in any way religious, finding most religions the cause of an incredible amount of trauma throughout the annals of history and also far fetched at best, and written by man. Its bizarre that so many have such faith, but perhaps faith in something, even a lie, is preferable to realism.
Also, as mentioned previously, I am aware of how religious mega zeal is leading some extremely powerful power mongers, and so I try to understand more…Great to see The Saker meeting the Sheik, who I have been watching and learning from for some time. His end of times work is fascinating as is his geopolitical knowledge. The last I had caught of his work was the lecture on money a month or so back…well worth checking out.
“You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists” –G.W.Bush
These accusations are “puerile” , hysteric, obscenely moralistic . Expressed righteousness is an act of exhibitionism . Pfui !
dear Scott,
by the verbosity, need for relentless fight and the use of a specific wording that this”Nagel blabla” uses, one could easily detect that this is the same “nobody from spain” , the one that was asked to leave yet cannot stay away from the site.
yeap, she used to sign before under a female handle.
the men roles and then women roles in society, towards each other and towards the aim of continuing humanity was so degraded lately: all are good only for slave work, for fighting with each other, for not having time for their love, children, art, beauty… just divide and conquer by the one world agenda. I still hope for a better tomorrow but feel too small to make a change.
In terms of my own stance on matters, which is a bit beyond the eagerness to pigeon hole me as conditioned, with the inherent implication of those stating this, somehow removed from such conditioning…
https://www.quora.com/Is-Syria-and-Assad-using-chemical-weapons-against-its-own-citizens-Why/answer/Daniel-Anthony-24
Which is very much focused on current affairs…and I am interested in any who can finish my conclusion. For I am a little lost in terms of what is going on. Will look forward to comments, or The Saker weighing in to help me fill in the blanks.
North Korea is trying to survive in a very hostile environment. But it is nothing can not be resolved by US moving out of South Korea, and remove sanctions.
By many account, America do not dare to attack North Korea, because NK will fight back.
Trump is thinking about moving nuclear weapon to South Korea. If he does, we all know Chinese and Russia will not seating on their hands.
I know many has been said about his unpredictability as a great asset, I am also sure that when one deal with some one unpredictable, you usually always prepare for the worst.
So IMHO, His bombing of Syria, show us he has no respect to human life, not respect to fact and truth, not respect to people who voted him, not respect to the leaders of other countries, and he is truly dangerous.
As for China, she is not run by a bunch of emotional adolescents. It is to everyone, including Syria and Russia’s benefit to engage Trump. It is much hard, and more dangerous if he is actively isolated, feel caged.
I am sure in the long history, China has dealt enough of this kind of people, especially the northern tribes who were known to be Cruel and unpredictable, with eyes on fertile land of south. I am sure Xi’s team has well researched history books, and adapt them to today’s environment.
So let’s say when Trump came to China, while he was walking the red carpet, the news broke out that America was attacking North Korea, I can see the show with Trump goes on, and THAAD be taken out. If Trump use Nuke, I am sure China and Russia will coordinate to take out the responsible party.
It is not Chinese tradition to mistreat any state, or the representatives of the states, so Trump is in luck!
hahahahaha thanks Scott – from Russia with love – wonderful –
Cmdr. Andria Slough’s idol is probably Hillary Clinton.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she was cackling with glee when she ordered those cruise missiles to be fired–reminiscent of Clinton’s infamous response to the news of Muammar Ghadaffi’s lynching.
We Came. We Bombed. Syrians Died.
Forget ‘four-dimensional’ chess… this attack I suspect was fifth or sixth.
Remember Trump giving his generals 100 days to come up with a plan to defeat ISIS?
There is an ongoing civil war in the US… Patriots V Neocons
The ‘real’ power in the deep state is the military. The same military who refused Obama’s orders to strike after the first false flag chemical incident.
It is not an exceptionally well-hidden secret that the patriot element of the military have been quietly supporting and providing intelligence and perhaps even ‘boots’ to the Russians in Syria.
I submit that not only was Assad and Putin ‘informed’ of the strike well in advance, but ‘informed’ also of the political necessity for such a ‘limited damage’ strike.
I also submit that at least some of the alleged ten thousand US boots on the ground in Syria are in reality fighting ALONGSIDE Russia, Syria, Hezzbollah and the Iranians to get rid of ISIS as Trump demanded. Of course, with the never-ending (until now) MSM sh*tstorm attacking Trump being a Putin puppet the generals could never admit to be actually helping Russia/Syria.
Watch for ‘increased tensions’ to be masterfully dealt with diplomatically by Trump and Putin. They will then reveal their plans to unite and defeat ISIS, ‘do a deal’ with Assad, hold fresh elections and begin to rebuild the ME.
I submit this attack was part of a complex ‘Art of the Deal’ chess move… giving Trump negotiating leverage with the bonus of removing the MSM’s favourite weapon … his so-called ‘Russia Ties’.
Ok, live in hope, but I submit it is just as likely that the “100 days to come up with a plan” likely produced nothing of substance and here we are with Erdogan in Turkey; his orange twin idiot type in DC; the Chinese scratching their heads; NK mooning SK & Japan; Putin likely upping the Syrian defense systems; and Assad moving slowly to an eventual win. All the while with the Saudi regime playing that old ’50s Elvis hit “Assad Must Go!” again on their well paid for MSM jute box.
When I see this type of charade distraction I immediately look in other directions for what is really going on. Nothing clear except the economy is cratering; the financial system is broke (&busted); and every tinpot government on the fringe (of relevance) — aka Australian/Canadian poodles — is jumping for joy at some news of mass distraction to get them off the front pages.
Yawn!
Putin and Assad just need to flick off this distracting flea bite and carry on doing the ‘win-thing’ — should be there by Xmas ’17, imo.
@ sheeple spotter
Have you actually read “Art of the Deal”?
In early 2016 I found a used copy for 50c – (about the right price). At the time it seemed improbable that Trump would be the RNC candidate. Job bush seemed the “chosen one”.
Reading his book, I knew trump was a turkey. (But better than Demon Hillary).
Here’s an anecdote he writes of with pride: (I’ll condense).
He hires someone he knows to be a crook. But he appoints the guy to manage one of his condominium complexes.
Trump tells the guy: “I know you are a thief, but don’t steal from me!”
Sometime later Trump comes by for an unannounced visit. The women in the office are in tears.
Why?
They had a little office “pool” of money used to buy each other birthday flowers and other tokens.
Trumps dude had stolen their money.
About $40. Yep $40.
So what does Trump do?
Sack the guy? Nope.
Compensate the women? (What’s $40 to a billionaire???) . Nope
He just tells the guy.
(Paraphrase:) “Dude, whaddya do that for? Just don’t steal from me!”.
Yep. That’s Trumps “art of the deal”.
He’s not playing fourth level chess.
trump isn’t, no. But his backers are. Trump’s just the front man. Behind him is a conservative christian team, utilising big data and modelling. This strike was planned in advance, and its a game against multiple elements within the US.
ask where the 36 missiles hit.
Ok. Where did the 36 missiles hit?
I don’t think this was even close to chess. Maybe tiddlywinks. It was a stupid move and it weakened both Trump and the US.
There seems to be anew kind of logical fallacy similar to ‘argument from ignorance’ — characterizing something so dumb it makes no sense at all as something beyond human understanding, similar to how people thought an infection was the work of demons before they knew about germs. This is just another US FUBAR.
I dea agree with this. You are give Trump’s intellect far more credit than it deserves.
Have you read art of the deal? It’s not brilliant fyi. Not 4d chess.
This was a dumbass, rash action and with it he lost a good deal of his core support.
Trump lost any trust from countries that he will act in a measured manner.
At best, the strike looked quite ineffective and raises many questions as to whether our systems are up to par for a real war with a capable foe.
This was a poorly thought out option to rush America into war before the people could mobilize and have a voice against it. It may fail in that because Syrian and Russian responses where too measured to justify us escalating to full retard warfare.
Now the deep state needs to manufacture more excuses to get their war.
Where do you even start with this???…Aside from the 2017 10th generation photocopy of 1950’s US propaganda there is nothing here. The whole thing has turned into a propaganda fantasy for the US – that is the zionist cash masterst can no longer find a post-Obummer messenger boy to keep up the exceptionalist front.
The problem is that when you start recruiting further and further from the bottom you get what you paid for. Stooges – idiot stooges – who are too stupid to even know what a bribe is.
Trump has been co-opted by the deep state and thrown his hands with a giant f*** you – go right ahead and do whatever judiac BS you want to do.
Only problem is that now the occultists face the SAA, Hezbollah, Iran and of course the Russians who are thoroughly pissed and fed up with the absurdity of the US oligarchy. Adding to the mess the Chinese have stopped giving a shit.
Russia is now the USSR without the corruptable communists – Russia like China is an oligarchy – they have their own cash and simply do not need the US. Only a Putin style drop kick to the zionists would work in the US – however, its seems that Trump is not up to the challenge.
The anglo zionists’ empire will go out with a whimper not a bang – the slacker vassal stooges will simply take the rest of eternity off as a sick day and there will be no one there to start ww3.
edited -language-mod
Now this is nice.
Shadow Brokers hackers release NSA hacking tools to punish Trump for ‘abandoning’ his base
https://www.rt.com/usa/384082-shadow-brokers-nsa-password-trump/
“Hacking group Shadow Brokers has released the password to a trove of NSA exploits in what they say is a form of protest against President Donald Trump for going back on his campaign promises, and warning the president, “Don’t forget your base.”
NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons; hackers leaked it.
1) https://t.co/zleVbyBtE3
2) https://t.co/aKwdiNbrJA
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 8, 2017
The password provided by Shadow Brokers unlocks the hacking tools, which include servers belonging to companies and universities which are allegedly used to deploy malware, according to researchers who have examined some of the documents. WikiLeaks tweeted the dump includes “hacking attacks on EU states, Russia, China, Japan and South East Asia.”
Shadow Brokers listed some of the reasons they were unhappy with Trump in a Medium blog post:
“Goldman Sachs (TheGlobalists) and Military Industrial Intelligence Complex (MIIC), cabinet, #2 — Backtracked on Obamacare, #3 — Attacked the Freedom Caucus (TheMovement), #4 — Removed Bannon from the NSC, #5 — Increased U.S. involvement in a foreign war (Syria Strike).”
The group also criticized Trump for launching the cruise missile strike against Syria, saying: “Whose war are you fighting? Israeli Nationalists’ (Zionist) and Goldman Sachs’ war? Chinese Globalists’ and Goldman Sachs war? Is not looking like you fighting the domestic wars, the movement elected you to be fighting.”
that’s amazing vt – what a story – I wonder what wikileaks is going to dump next – just think what ‘news’ they’ve been receiving on DJT in the past two days…
The new technology works both ways … don’t it ?
Good Lord.
Yes yes everyone. Click on the link and tell the NSA that you are so angry you are prepared break goodness knows how many laws that can put you away for maybe 10000 years. The timing is perfect as they ready the fusion centers for Armegeddon day or whatever..
I am reminded of an item that appeared on mainstream TV probably, 10 years ago. In it a security official pretends to be a whistleblower and explains that your phone can be used as a listening device even when it is turned off. In this story on CIA controlled Mainstrean Media Television, he proceeded to carefully demonstrate how to remove the battery and continue your conversation as if now you were suddenly safe.
What he was doing is showing you how to activate the recording mechanism in your cell phone. When the battery is removed that’s when the recording begins. Subsequently I have seen activists playing this trick, holding the phone in front of them at all times, thinking they were protecting themselves when in fact they were telling Big Brother every detail of their plan.
In a protest zone around say, a G7 meeting, such intel could valuable, don’t you think vot tak?
Blow “Tomahawks” at the airbase Shayrat / Massed strike by Tomahawks at Shayrat airbase
Anna News
https://youtu.be/LfWcXkgyzio
Listen to this crap from the Canadian PM vassal, Trudeau Junior:
” “A trusted and reliable ally in the United States informed us that the Assad regime was responsible for these chemical attacks.” ”
“This morning I spoke with the president directly and emphasized that Canada agrees that Assad’s repeated use of chemical weapons must not continue,” Trudeau said during question period. ”
He must be trying to compete with Australia’s Julie Bishop for the best grovelling vassal sycophant.
http://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/trudeau-trusted-u-s-administration-said-assad-responsible-for-gas-attack-1.3358665
I have to assume he knows that the Sarin attack by Syrian jets never happened but is he a deceptive part of the Trumpster’s stage show or he is he gullible and in the audience?
Not that it really matters.
You cannot trust PM Hairdo. Not to be Trudeau’s son and not to be a Canadian patriot.
He is proud to be regional CEO of the Five Eyes + Israel and stacks his cabinet with Zionists, Trotskyites, and Ukro-Fascists. Absurdly enough, his FM is a Banderist how grandpa ran Nazi Newspapers in Nazi-collaborating The Ukraine. She lied about it but is still there though the Canuck press halfheartedly ran the story
A few weeks ago the news media here in Australia were mocking Trump for his every move but now he’s the man of the hour. Like the true “sheeple” that they are, listeners on call back radio are quick to praise Trump for finally standing up to the butcher Assad, who has repeated gassed his people!? I thought the populace had learned their lesson after the 2013 false flag events, where attempts to whip up the masses for war failed. Looks like the Australian public will yet again turn a blind eye to our government dragging us into another endless war which will do wonders for Prime Minister Turnball’s popularity rating which are equal to those of Trump.
Dwanna know what really makes me puke.?
ANZAC Day.
due to faux sense of familial obligation I went to my first ANZAC day commemoration of the 2017 “season” this Sunday morning.
It’s all solemn, and Lest We Forget …. afterwards at “refreshments” I hold forth on “why the hell are we supporting bombing Syria”
Reactions range from huh? to “Assad is killing his own people – with gas !!!.”
No-one had any clue what a false flag was.
Said to a Viet vet – so, Gulf of Tonkin?????
Pearl Harbour????
Iraq+ WMD??
is the same s//hit…… Again and again …
Yeah, well pretty much no one was the least bit interested…. All politely dispersed as fast as they could.
“Lest We Forget” – it’s all I can do to not puke on their shoes…..
It’s worth pointing out that even by US West Point Military Academy estimates around 65% of the Syrian Army still made up of Sunni Muslims.
So much for the supposed Alawite minority’s oppression of majority Sunni Syrians.
Enjoy watching the Mac beachball brain effect that fact usually induces.
“Estimates indicate that Sunnis account for between 60 and 65 percent of the regular army.[28] Despite mass defections by thousands of mostly Sunni conscripts and mid-level officers and growing reports of recruitment problems,[29] Sunnis continue to be well represented in Syria’s security institutions in various capacities, including leadership and other specialized roles.”
https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/syrias-sunnis-and-the-regimes-resilience
i think that there were two ops. The cover story – blowing up some broken down old planes for the MSM, and the real targets – whatever those 36 missiles were aimed at.
I’m hoping that they were aimed at black US assets, leftovers from the last lot of chaos causing neoliberals.
With the white helmets broadcasting their false flag play 24 hours before it happened, Trump, Putin and Assad had plenty of time to cook up the cover op, leaving Trump’s team free to give the false flag 5th column a slap in the face. (and China a lively wake up call, too)
Just speculation, of course.
Exclusive/Graphic Video: The Truth Behind Syrian Gas Attacks, will Russia Back Down?
By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/04/05/exclusivegraphic-video-the-truth-behind-syrian-gas-attacks-will-russia-back-down/
ISIS, which along with Al Qaeda cheered Trump’s attack on Syria, just claimed responsibility for the twin bombings in Egypt that brought death and destruction to the country’s Christians celebrating Palm Sunday.
Since by deductive reasoning they seem to be on the same ‘team'”, I wonder if Abu Ivanka -Trump’s new moniker since bombing Syria – will return the favor and give his ISIS collegues a thumbs up?
Can you believe it, the man is just 80 days into his presidency, and already is losing his base supporters?
I guess that he will console himself with his new found friends from the ‘fake media’, and the likes of Bill Kristol, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and the queen bee Lindsey Graham.
When you have the head-choppers and liver-eaters from ISIS along with the war criminals in Israel and the Whahabi promoters from the Gulf simultaneously applauding you, it should not be taken as a compliment.
It should instead serve as a severe warning and a graphic indication that you have fucked up big time!!!
In the wake of America’s show of arrogance with its missile strikes on Syria, Russia must not limit the suspension of its deconfliction arrangements to America.
Israel too must have it free pass torn up!
They cheered on the US strike on Syria and bragged how much they were intimately involved in its execution.
http://russia-insider.com/en/israeli-minister-syria-strike-restores-us-leadership-middle-east/ri19494
Russia must cease accomodating Israel’s incursions into Syria.
Hezbollah, Iran and the SAA are fighting shoulder to shoulder with Russia and should not be exposed to dangers that are avoidable.
Why should Israel be allowed to brag and boast about hitting Hezbollah?
Russia must tear up this arrangement forthwith.
Dangerous Trend: US Attacks on Syrian Army Doing Nothing but ‘Aiding Terrorism’
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201704091052457284-us-syria-terrorists-support/
The article points out the continuity between israel’s tuppence and obama quislings in their support for the terrorists attacking Syria and compares the zionazi attack on the Syrian army back in Autumn with the air base attack last week, how both of these were deliberate attempts to prolong the war in support of proxy terrorists.
Looking forward to the Sakers article on the Syria CW allegations and the illegal strikes.
https://gosint.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/former-dia-colonel-us-strikes-on-a-syria-based-on-a-lie/
Moscow, Tehran Say ‘US Aggression’ Against Sovereign Syria ‘Inadmissible’
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201704091052467053-putin-rouhani-syria-crisis/
“The Leaders also noted the importance to continue close cooperation on political and diplomatic settlement of the armed conflict in Syria,” the press service’s statement read.
“Particular importance was paid to the key aspects of the bilateral cooperation in the sphere of counterterrorism, a readiness to deepen cooperation in order to ensure stability in the Middle East was expressed,” the statement said.
“On the initiative of the Iranian party a phone conversation between Vladimir Putin and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani was held. … [The presidents] exchanged their views of the situation in Syria. Both parties pointed out the inadmissibility of US aggressive actions against the sovereign state in violation of the international law. Putin and Rouhani called for holding an objective, impartial investigation of all circumstances of the incident involving chemical weapons in the Syrian province of Idlib on April 4,” the statement read.”
The tuppence regime drops their pretences on Syria and overtly carry out israel’s policies and the western zio-gay media does a sudden 180 in unison. Gee, what a surprise.
Democracy down: ‘Liberals celebrate Trump’s lack of congressional oversight in Syria attack’
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/384052-us-trump-congress-syria/
“Tellingly, Donald Trump’s move has largely won over the mainstream media and marked a significant shift from his presidential campaign stance.
RT: What is your reaction to the events that we have seen?
Max Blumenthal: I thought the timing was really interesting of the chemical attack. It is clear that something did occur, that people died in a horrific fashion. It was truly shocking, but what was also shocking was that diplomats were gathering in Brussels for the first time to talk about reconstructing Syria. The reconstruction is an issue that the Syrian opposition has tried to prevent. We also saw the Trump administration officially reverse the long-standing US line of regime change days before these attacks. For me, the timing was shocking because it would have been politically suicidal for the Assad government to have authorized officially a sarin gas attack in an area like Khan Sheikhoun, which has very little strategic significance. And beyond that I don’t understand the military strategy behind deploying sarin gas. It would have been some rogue low-level commander to have done this because the political logic just doesn’t add up…
What we’ve seen since 2013 “red line” debacle when the Syrian opposition failed to get the intervention it would have needed to march on Damascus is a beefing up of insurgent propaganda as it is known within the intelligence community, basically helping provide the rebels and opposition activists with cameras, media gear. USAID has contributed possibly hundreds of millions of dollars to that. [Additionally, there is] one of the major forces involved in insurgent propaganda, the so-called White Helmets. These are the groups that produce the images that we saw from Khan Sheikhoun. I am not disputing that the images were very real and terrible, but the point of this images and the atrocity exhibition by Nikki Haley at the UN was to overwhelm all reason so that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons would not be able to come in and perform an independent investigation. We had to rely on all these dodgy sources on the ground and Trump was ultimately pushed into implementing a policy that the so-called ‘deep state’, the national security state, has been pushing for ever since 2013.”
Western media ‘whooping for joy’ following US missile strike on Syria
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/384041-syria-war-attack-trump-criminal/
“On the eve of the Brussels conference we see this alleged chemical attack, and we see this absolute psychopathic knee-jerk reaction to this alleged attack, says Vanessa Beeley, independent researcher and journalist who has traveled to Syria on numerous occasions.
‘Aiding terrorism’
Mike Raddie, co-Editor of BSNews
RT: What was the response of the Western and the UK media?
Mike Raddie: They’ve been practically whooping with joy, as we can expect, I think. Not that long ago, there were pundits in the media calling for Trump’s impeachment. And all of the cruise missile humanitarians in the West, and certainly here in the UK, are once again giving him support. But all across the corporate media there has been nothing but overwhelming support for Trump’s actions, which are just ludicrously reckless…
It has really ratcheted up tension in the region just when it wasn’t needed. And we know that ISIS takes full advantage every time there is a strike against Assad forces. So, it is aiding terrorism, it is completely reckless and it has taken Trump less than three months to become a full-fledged war criminal.”
The last couple months the Astana talks were failing, especially when it moved to Geneva as opposition sponsors realised that they would not be getting their own way…….some groups getting all buffet and not attending, trying to set their agendas eg HNC…….a majordactorI believe in the timing of this chemical event, plus the Brussels thingy too, plus the new Haley, plus Families of killed people 9/11now putting in progress to sue Saudi Arabia…perhaps? Very good interview with a representative few weeks ago on RT with Sean Stone on watching the hawks.
Having now discarded all of their pretenses, the zionazi tuppence quislings are now going all out pushing greater israel geostrategy.
US envoy to UN says ousting Assad is still among priorities, Moscow slams move as ‘sabotage’
https://www.rt.com/news/384111-us-un-envoy-syria-turn/
“There’s not any sort of option where a political solution is going to happen with Assad at the head of the regime,” Hayley said, echoing the “Assad must go” approach of the Obama administration.
She went on to say that “regime change is something that we think is going to happen because all of the parties are going to see that Assad is not the leader that needs to be taking place for Syria.”
Trump considering sanctions against Russia & Iran over Syria – US envoy to UN
https://www.rt.com/usa/384112-trump-sanctions-russia-iran/
“US President Donald Trump is considering implementing new sanctions against Russia and Iran, the US ambassador to UN, Nikki Haley has said in an interview with CNN.”
But…but…but, trump doesn’t want to do these things, it’s the “deep state” forcing him, the trumpette dittoheads solemnly proclaim as they pour themselves another glass of kool-aid.
It doesn’t matter who are making these decisions. What really means are those decisions and especially are their real or just media propaganda (remember how US-Russia trade increased almost 10% during 2014-2015 “sanctions” )
Twitter Users Slam MSM Hack Over Claim Putin & Trump Colluded in Syria Strikes
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201704091052467596-social-media-odonnell-conspiracy-theory-reaction/
“Just as Russian-US relations under President Trump hit a new low after Thursday’s cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base, the mainstream media rolled out a new theory worthy of any tinfoil-hat wearing nut: that the Kremlin and the White House deviously colluded in the attack for political gain. Social media users responded to the claim.
According to the theory, President Putin had instructed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to launch a chemical attack against his own people, with the aim of attracting global media attention, which Trump could then use to respond with cruise missile strikes. The latter, O’Donnell noted, would thus eliminate any doubts of Russian influence over the US president.”
When somebody posts comments claiming Putin-trump collusion behind the pindo attack, consider the source for this calculated disinfo vector.
Jim Stone this morning wrote
http://82.221.129.208/baaasepagen7.html
Last night I posted about a possible U.S. incursion into Syria from Jordan. As it turns out, there was a (probable) cross border fire incident that got either U.S. troops or Jordanian troops involved. There is a high probability they crossed into Syria to resolve it, but they quickly left as far as I can find out. And that is IF anything happened at all, which is hard to confirm. However, there is nothing happening with this that is going to get Russia very upset.
Right now there is so much going on that it is hard to sort it out. But one thing is still easy to say: It is awful damning that Syria, Iran, and North Korea are slated for destruction, and the thing they have in common is no Rothchild owned central bank. That says it all, the motive for everything can be known with that one simple fact.
Another thing: Russia is none too pleased with Trump’s cruise missile attack. Russia has stated in no uncertain terms that the gas attack was fake/staged/scammed And that America knew that when Trump launched the cruise missile attack. There are 900 opinions circulating about why it failed. No one has the answer, and I can only guess also. My guess is that Russia used GPS jamming and no attempted shoot downs. That is the only thing that can explain why so many either over flew the base or landed short. America’s cruise missiles don’t guess, they run on a confirmed working system that is accurate 100 percent of the time provided no one jams it. I think that is what happened.
If Russia had shot them down, some speculate that could have led to an incident with the U.S. because it can be proven. But if Russia instead jammed them, well, Russia and Syria have the right to transmit whatever they want. Who could get mad at them for merely confusing the missiles by switching a transmitter on?
Kushner: My opinion: Kushner is a low life scamming Mossad agent that sought out Ivanka to get a foothold into Trump’s life. Now that Trump is president, this is being exploited to the max, And I FIRMLY believe that both Trump and Melania are stoned off their asses on deeply researched and effective mind control drugs that show no outward signs other than a sudden switch to being easily manipulated. Trump might just be a drone now, but you’d never know that by looking at him or hearing him speak because the drugs won’t affect that.
I 100 percent believe that Kushner drugged the shit out of Trump, and that Ivanka means absolutely nothing to Kushner other than as something cute to screw and gain power with. I 100 percent believe Kushner is rooted straight into the Knesset and America is now fully under Israeli rule, via Kushner. And it will only get worse, I expect to see Trump become a 100 percent Israeli owned robotic zombie (and he probably already is.)
It might be safe to call ADIOS to MAGA, there is no conceivable way the cruise missile attack would have happened if all was well.
Yeah Kushner, Mr. 666 Fifth Avenue is certainly the Mossad agent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNtsQmwas5k&feature=youtu.be
Maybe Melania wakes up, grabs Geronimo’s tomahawk, I am sure there is a tomahawk
somewhere in the White House….and saves civilization!
Right now there is so much going on that it is hard to sort it out. But one thing is still easy to say: It is awful damning that Syria, Iran, and North Korea are slated for destruction, and the thing they have in common is no Rothchild owned central bank. That says it all, the motive for everything can be known with that one simple fact.
— Jim Stone
http://82.221.129.208/baaasepagen7.html
Sorry to break the spell, but sources tell me that Geronimo was American Intel.
The story goes that even in the early settler days the usual suspects ran a program of abduction of American Indian kids across the country, putting them in Mengele-schools and when ready for the task, unleashing them as agents infiltrating the tribes of their fathers and forefathers.
It looks like the zionazis will be increasing their war against Novorussia simultaneously with their renewed assault on Syria.
Female Face of War: European Lady Snipers Spotted Fighting in Donbass
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201704091052465457-ukraine-donbass-female-snipers/
“Our intelligence continues to detect an increasing number of foreign mercenaries at the Line of Contact in Eastern Ukraine, including groups of snipers. In most cases those are women from Latvia, Lithuania and Poland,” Marochko told journalists.
The Lugansk official noted that the situation in the zone of responsibility of the LPR People’s Militia is being aggravated. He earlier reported that Ukrainian armed forces have delivered even more military hardware to Donbass, including self-propelled howitzer artillery Akatsiya (acacia), armored vehicles and 30 tanks.
Earlier in March, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) also reported female snipers being sent to Donbass. Eduard Basurin, deputy commander of the DPR operational command, said that a female unit called the ‘Witches’, organized by the country’s far-right party Right Sector (outlawed in Russia), had arrived in the conflict zone. He said they are firing at residential areas adjoining to the Line of Contact.”
Ash Sha’irat Civilians Talk About US Missile Attack on Nearby Airfield
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201704091052470490-syria-airfield-damages/
Article describing civilian casualties and damage to villages near air base. From the descriptions, it appears several missiles struck nearby settlements. My impression is the 23 tomahawks counted as striking are only those that actually hit the air base. Those that struck nearby were not counted in the total. If true, that means probably many of the “missing” 39 missiles are among those that struck nearby settlements, with more probably coming to ground harmlessly nearby or along the route taken to reach the air base.
More evidence the tomahawk missile targeting mechanisms were ECM’d in some manner which caused the missiles to veer off target.
Shhh… vrag podslushyvajet (The enemy is evesdropping). The good news he is also eavesdropping on every fart, burp and belch of We the Pimple.
Hey VT, (and others)
I really, really (really) don’t think the Russians did anything to intercept or “take down” the tomahawks.
Here’s why: the tomahawks are not as “accurate” and “magic” as their PR would have us all believe.heresy!
In the hours and first day after Trumps 59-missile “tweet”, I read an excellent short piece/ comment on a blog about how the tomahawks had actually failed their testing. Despite this, figures were fudged and they were commissioned, but to overcome their lack of accuracy, they are launched in “clusters”.
Today I have spent hours trying to again find this intriguing piece. For now it remains lost. But in searching, I have now read far more about tomahawks than I ever would have wanted to know.
(I am going to put all the links at end).
Some of what I have discovered:
1/ tomahawks need terrain maps to “find their way”. Constructing these maps is not as easy as a “punter” might imagine. Ok. The paper I base this statement on dates from 2009. And tech has improved. But. The process as explained is still fairly “complicated”.
Now immediately following the US war crime, the RF MoD said the US attack had been planned prior to the (unverified and increasingly implausible) “sarin” release. The casus belli for the US. Given what I have read about the essential (time-consuming) prelim and prep to get the terrain maps ready for the tomahawks launch, this is RF claim is more than plausible.
2/ tomahawks need terrain with lots of geographical features. Operating over desert and water is the most challenging and causes the most lost accuracy.
3/ in 2014 Obama cut off funding to the tomahawk program.
“Purchase of the missiles is also set to be eliminated, with stores of the Tomahawk missile expected to run out by 2018.” There has been some chatter the tomahawks were chosen as a way to clear or use up missiles. Possibly?
4/ a “conspiracy theory” I am about to initiate. Lost, unexploded tomahawks are harvested by ISUS and used for making car bombs. This part is not the theory. It’s fact. (See link). My conspiracy theory(tm) is that the US is experiencing difficultly restocking ISUS with weapons, so it allowed a few bombs to “stray”.
If we soon see an upswing in car and suicide bombings, …. Maybe my theory is not so “theoretical”!
Links:
Article on the tomahawks | specifically the nuclear version, | accuracy| terrain | with informed discussion in comments:
http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/202560/why-the-navy-should-retire-tlam-n/
Obama cancels tomahawks:
Read more at https://www.businessinsider.com.au/death-of-tomahawk-and-hellfire-missile-program-2014-3#dc6C8OPoKaC2Ux8l.99
ISUS uses tomahawks for car bombs:
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/isis-militants-collect-unexploded-tomahawk-missiles-making-car-bombs-photos-610049
Disclaimer: I am not the author of these papers. If you have issues with technical stuff – argue with the people I am quoting.
But, based on this reading, and at other sites, I have formed my opinion that the RF did NOT intercept US missiles because they did not have to. The missiles are – what did the Ruskies say?
“….. the combat effectiveness of the American massive missile strike on the Syrian Air Base is extremely low.”
(PS/ I am a great fan of understatement: gotta luv the RF MoD!)
Eureka!!!!!
I have found it!!!!!!!!
Right here, on Saker, in the very same comments section I am posting to!
LOL!!!!
Thank you! Larchmonter445 ! *
“”” If you recall the testing days of the US cruise missile, before it was approved it had failed 5 out of 5 times, including crashes in the Santa Ynez or Santa Maria or Santa Barbara mountains ( I forget which Santa received a direct hit) and one went off to Canada, but the Maple Leafers gathered that one. So Raytheon did a bangup job in the final tests. Congress approved and the military invented the use of swarms of missiles to cover up their failures, unlike the Russian Kalibr.
* I KNEW the comment I read in the the early aftermath of trumps missile”tweet” was from someone knowledgable. Thank you Larchmonter445!
(You may not appreciate that I have spent hours today searching, searching! searching, to find that comment again!)
Phew! I did not imagine I read it!
Should include this bit too, cause its delicious:
“It’s all in the branding: Shock and Awe.
I shall borrow Saker’s term for the new brand name for the Trumpettes: flaccid.
Or in GI jargon, limp dicks.
We can be thankful for the corruption in the MIC. That attack could have been serious if Shoigu and Rogozin had been running the Pentagon the last ten years.”
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov States:
It is obvious that the American cruise missile strike had been planned long before this event.
It is necessary to conduct reconnaissance operations, to plan and prepare the missile flight paths, and put them on full combat alert.
It is clear for any specialist that the decision for the missile strike on Syria had been made well in advance of the events in Khan Sheikhoun, which have become just a formal reason for the attack, while the demonstration of military power has been dictated only by reasons of internal policy.
The comment: It is necessary to conduct reconnaissance operations, to plan and prepare the missile flight paths, and put them on full combat alert. confirms the technical stuff detailed in the Arms Control Wonk site.
The article goes into A LOT of detail about preparing maps and flight plans for tomahawks.
http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/202560/why-the-navy-should-retire-tlam-n/
The integration here in the west of Financial, Military, and Government makes problematic, any meaningful analysis of such actions as these: Self evidently “illegal” within the framework of international agreements and treaties such actions might be used to engineer something as banal as a rise in the price of a commodity. In fact it is difficult to discern any military purpose at all behind this action: Yet I am not one of those that believe for a second that the US is given to stupidity. Desperation? Yes. The US is like a behemoth being driven by Israel and dynastic bankers. Perhaps a minor interest exists in watching Russias’ actions and reactions, though more likely forcing Russia to keep warships on station off Syria is more likely to me. As well this is a wonderful distraction.
Might some watch this farce and entertain the idea that their lordships within the 4th Reich are so excited by the proximity of Zero Hour for Barbarossa 2.0 that they’re careless about concealing the “fissures in their tapestry” (Clapper’s term, not mine).
At least the fissures are vast and carelessly plastered over, or simply left to see – as the silly nonsense about chem attack…
That means either desperation or hurry – just as the silly missile affair was surely seen by China as an indicator of panicked amateurs…
Some may see the tells in Russia and China… They hint that the die was cast… If true, then we shall know very soon. Pax
Ok…so now that more information is trickling in about the US cruise missile strike…it is a good time to try to address some of the technical questions people have been asking here…including…
Why did only 23 of 59 missiles launched reach their target…?
Why didn’t the Russians use S300 and S400 to shoot down the missiles…?
Did the Russians take any defensive measures against the incoming Tomahawks…?
None of this has been explained in official pronouncements from either side…and of course people need to know…
The article posted here does not address these technical questions adequately…and it makes things worse by mixing in a lot of political discussion…
I will give here only a technical discussion…and the political questions are suitable for another thread…
I will start by saying that there is generally a great lack of understanding of even the basic principles of modern warfare technology…this is unfortunate, because this subject is actually not that difficult for the layman to understand quite adequately…
Unfortunately, this lack of understanding is due… I would assert… to the fact that most of the so-called media materials available on the technical aspects of weapons systems…especially aerial systems like aircraft and missiles…are ridiculously inept and provide no understanding or furtherance of knowledge to the layman reader…
Case in point…two widely read aerospace and defense ‘analysts’ in the US media are Tyler Rogoway [Time] and Dave Majumdar [National Interest]…neither of these two individuals has any kind of technical qualifications that I can find…such as an engineering degree or pilot credentials, either civilian or military…they are basically stenographers for the Pentagon’s PR machine…
In fact…individuals who do have the technical and practical qualifications…and also the ability to write well are very few and far between…
In the English language the only such individuals I know are Peter Collins [recently deceased], a former UK military test pilot and longtime writer for FlightGlobal…and the team at Air Power Australia…which includes Dr. Carlo Kopp, a highly competent aerospace engineer, and Peter Goon, who also holds an engineering degree and is a graduate of the US Naval Test Pilot School and has logged many flying hours in both military and civilian aircraft…incidentally, in order to become a test pilot it is mandatory to also possess an engineering degree…
The home page for Air Power Australia is here…
http://www.ausairpower.net/
And here is a good flight review by Peter Collins of the new Yak-130 advanced jet trainer/light attack aircraft…
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/flight-test-yak-130-proves-versatility-373512/
So on to the subject at hand…what really happened with 36 of those 59 Tomahawks that are ‘unaccounted’…?
A very interesting remark has now been made by Igor Konashenkov, as reported in Sputnik…
’…The spokesman suggested that it was noteworthy that only 23 of the 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from US Navy destroyers made it to their targets at Ash Sha’irat. “It is not clear whether the other 36 cruise missiles landed,” Konashenkov said, without offering any more details…’
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201704091052462296-russian-syria-air-defense-upgrade/
Of course, we all know that highly ‘sensitive’ information is closely guarded by every nation…so the most we can do when trying to dissect these official pronouncements is to note which particular points are emphasized…
The fact that Konashenkov…only now after several days have passed…for the first time emphasizes the very poor success ratio of the Tomahawk strike…I read this as the ‘cat that swallowed the canary smile…’
Now say what you will about the Tomahawk…but I will state unequivocally here that there is no chance in Hades that any major weapon system with a known success rate of under 40 percent would be fielded in active duty…
Translation…the ‘unaccounted’ 36 were almost certainly brought down…one way or another…and that is going to be the topic of this discussion…
So let’s first start by understanding how the BGM-109 Tomahawk works…
The missile is about 20 feet [6 meters] long and about 21 inches [0.52 meters] in diameter…it has a cylindrical airframe with foldout wings for lift during flight and tail surfaces for maneuvering control…
It is launched vertically from tubes on warships and submarines by means of a solid-propellant rocket motor [similar to a firecracker…and unlike a liquid-fuel rocket engine]…which detaches after the launch…
Once launched the missile’s wings pop out and its on-board propulsion system kicks in…this being a small turbofan engine similar in concept to the turbofans used on passenger jets [only much smaller]…the engine is located in the aft section of the fuselage as are the tail surfaces…
The missile weight is about 2,900 lb [1,400 kg] …and the thrust of its engine is 600 lb [270 kg]…its speed is about 550 mph and its range is up to about 1,500 miles [2,500 km]…depending on version…
So we see that it’s speed is subsonic…amount Mach 0.7…or about the speed a passenger jet flies at…
Most important, the BGM-109 is very accurate…it circle error probable estimated at about 20 ft…[6 m]…the precise figure is classified but this is a good estimate accepted by experts…
Now before getting on to the specific details of the missile’s systems…it’s important to note that the airfield that was bombed sustained virtuallyno damage to its runways…this detail is notable due to the missile’s high accuracy and the fact that destroying the runways would have certainly been the primary mission objectives…since this is the most vital part of any airfield…an airfield is no longer an airfield if its runways are destroyed…
From the imagery that has been made public…the missiles that did hit the field…most missed the runways quite badly…assuming that the runways would be at least 60 to 100 ft [20 to 30 m] wide…this looks very strange indeed…there is a very puzzling disconnect here between the Tomahawk’s known accuracy and this…
So what caused nearly two thirds of the launched Tomahawks to miss…?
Well…let’s look now at the most important aspect of this weapon…its guidance system…
Now the general public seems to think that missiles and military aircraft rely mostly on satellite navigation like GPS or the Russian Glonass [incidentally every smartphone you buy comes with both GPS and Glonass receivers since the combination further increases accuracy]…
That’s great for smartphones…but for military purposes satnav is used very carefully and never without backup…the reason is that in an all-out war the low earth orbit [LEO] satellites that comprise the GPS and Glonass constellations can be easily taken out…either with long-range SAMs…or even with missiles launched from jets…the high-flying [over 20 km height] MiG-31 carries a missile just for that purpose…
The fact of the matter is that aircraft and missiles [both cruise and ballistic] rely primarily on a navigation system known as inertial navigation…this is basically a gyroscope-based system…a gyroscope being a spinning wheel…kind of like a flywheel…
The idea is that a spinning wheel wants to keep spinning in exactly its orientation…just like a spinning top…due to its rotational inertia…hence the name inertial navigation…so if the gyro wheel is oriented vertically it will want to keep spinning vertically…due to Newton’s First Law which tells us that an object in motion will tend to continue its motion unless acted on by an outside force…
Now if we put that spinning gyro in a gimbal that lets it stay spinning in its original orientation…we can turn that gimbal any way we like and the gyro will remain spinning exactly in in place…
If we now mount that gimbal gyro in an airplane and the airplane starts a banking turn to one side…that spinning gyro is not going to want to turn from its vertical position…there is an angle now between the gyro wheel and the gimbal mount which can be plainly seen as off-kilter…ie the pilot sees the aircraft is banking…even if flying in total darkness…
This is the basic principle of how gyros enable pilots to fly ‘blind’… ie in weather conditions where you cannot see the horizon for reference…you just look at your gyro and you see that your airplane has departed from its straight and level attitude and is now banked…here is an article that explains this…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroscope
http://science.howstuffworks.com/gyroscope.htm
Now gyroscopes are one of those key inventions…like the stirrup in earlier centuries…that have had a huge impact on warfare…[and also on civilian air and space flight]…without the gyroscope air travel in bad weather would not be possible…
But the gyroscope is also the basis for navigation systems on board aircraft, spacecraft and missiles…
If we go back to our simple example of the spinning gyro wheel…and we place sensors that measure acceleration on that gyro gimbal…then when the plane starts to bank…the sensor [which could be as simple as a spring] would detect the motion…we would see it as the spring stretching or compressing…
Now if you have three gyros oriented in all three possible axes of motion…ie our original vertical gyro which is aligned in the fore-aft direction…one horizontal gyro…and another vertical gyro but oriented in the left to right direction…then you have a complete picture of the attitude of your air vehicle at any given moment…
The fore-aft vertical gyro will tell us when the airplane is banking either left or right…the horizontal gyro will tell us when the airplane is pitching either up or down…and the left to right vertical gyro will tell us when the airplane is yawing [ie turning flat without banking] left or right…
With accelerometers on each gyro we can also record the exact accelerations involved in each of those changes of direction…
Now here is the neat part…if we know our exact position where we started…ie our exact longitude and latitude coordinates [which is not hard]…then the record of our aircraft’s movements as recorded by the accelerometers can be computed to give us our actual position at any time in our flight…
In other words, the instrument knows where the aircraft or spacecraft is because it has been keeping track of each tiny change in its direction and speed…
This doesn’t actually require three separate gyros…a single gyro with gimbals that allow freedom of rotation in all three axes will work the same way…
Btw…this gyro speed and position ‘computation’ does not actually require an electronic computer as the math involved is simple integral calculus that can be done by a mechanical computer…similar in principle to a clock…like the IMP Globus that was used for many years on Voskhod spacecraft…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_Spacecraft_%22Globus%22_IMP_navigation_instrument
Now I know this is a rather long and perhaps boring explanation of a bit of technical arcana…but rest assured that this type of navigation instrument is as essential to the national security as the nuclear warhead itself…after all if you have no way of delivering that warhead to your enemy’s front door…then what good is it…?
The significance of the gyro-based navigation system is that it is self contained…and does not rely on outside signals such as radio [radar and GPS] which can be jammed…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_guidance#Inertial_guidance
I had mentioned this earlier in my discussion about the new US ‘super fuze’ for its sea-launched ICBMs…which happens to have added a radar altimeter to an ICBM for the first time in history…in order to measure its height from the ground [or more likely sea]…an exceedingly stupid idea that now makes all US SLBMs vulnerable to what perhaps happened to the Trump Tomahawks to cause them to miss…
Now today’s inertial navigation systems [INS] no longer use mechanical gyros with spinning wheels…they use sophisticated devices like the laser ring gyro [a beam of laser light going in a circle still has rotational inertia]…and they use electronic computers…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_navigation_system
Here’s a Ukranian-made laser gyro…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_laser_gyroscope#/media/File:Ring_laser_gyroscope_at_MAKS-2011_airshow.jpg
They are quite accurate…but do lose a small amount of position error over time…about half a mile for each hour of flying time in good systems…still for a cruise missile that is flying for over two hours that means an error of a mile or more if relying solely on INS…
So the INS position errors must be corrected with another instrument…again, we could simply use GPS for that…but that brings up other problems…
Besides the possibility of having your satellites shot down in war…the radio signals from GPS are not always available at any point on earth at any given time…since the satellites orbit the earth and are therefore not over one spot…and you need several satellites overhead simultaneously in order to make a position fix based on triangulation…
So the preferable way is another type of instrument to correct the INS…in cruise missiles that system is called terrain contour matching or TERCOM…
It works like this…cruise missiles like the Tomahawk are basically an automatically-piloted subsonic aircraft that is designed to fly close to ground level throughout its flight…this is crucial because ground hugging makes any aircraft harder to detect by radar…for one thing it won’t be picked up by radar until it gets over the visible horizon…by which time it may be as close as 20 miles and could hit in about 2 minutes if flying at 550 mph…and the missile can further elude radar by using terrain features as cover…like hills etc…by flying what’s called a nap-of-the earth profile…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nap_of_the_earth
The guidance system of the Tomahawk contains a terrain map of its flight path to its target…this allows it to fly the ground-hugging profile…this is nothing new since geographical data like terrain maps are published by every country…In fact even a small, private propeller airplane is often equipped with these terrain maps in its on-board avionics…in order to prevent flying into mountains or antenna towers and such…
However any ground-hugging system does require one piece of radio equipment…the radar altimeter…which is basically a very simple radar that measures the distance from the ground to the aircraft…ever passenger jet is equipped with one…only we call them radio altimeters in aviation parlance…
So this is how the TERCOM works…the pre-loaded map in the guidance computer on board the Tomahawk works in step with the INS which tells it where it is…
The radio altimeter measures the missile’s height above the ground and compares that with readings from a barometric altimeterwhich is a simple device found on all aircraft large and small…and gives height above sea level…by comparing the two altimeter readings with the terrain map the missile knows exactly where it is…and the INS is then corrected for position error with the new precise fix…this computation goes on continuously with various cross-checking and software rules that are supposed to prevent the thing from going off course…here is a good overview of the Tomahawk’s guidance system…
http://ausairpower.net/TE-Cruise-Missiles-1985.html
Bottom line is that this is very good system that is pretty much guaranteed to put the missile on its target…
But funny thing is…we do know that more than 60 percent of them did go off course…
So what is the Achilles Heel in that cruise missile guidance system…?…we know it’s not the INS because it is a self-contained gyro system that doesn’t use radio signals and therefore cannot be tampered with from outside… ie without physical access…
We know it’s not the barometric altimeter or other air data instruments…like airspeed which is measured with a pitot tube [invented more than 200 years ago]…these also cannot be tampered with from outside…
We can assume that the computer that does all the processing for the INS, the terrain map, and the TERCOM can also not be hacked from outside…[there is no such known technology and it would certainly be the holy grail of modern warfare to be able to hack your opponent’s missiles while they are in flight…]
That leaves only the radar altimeter…and we certainly know that radars can be jammed…
Up until recently jamming of radars was done by trying to disrupt them with electronic noise…for example an aircraft flying in the vicinity of air defense radars will carry an electronic jamming pod that will try to disrupt the ground radars…
However…we must get into some technical details here…an important aspect of any radar is its electrical power…a ground or ship-based radar can have a huge diesel generator making hundreds of kilowatts of power…an aircraft in flight can make only a few kilowatts…and usually those jamming pods have little propellers on their tips used for generating power…[they’re called air turbines…]
A missile with a radar on it…even if it’s just a radar altimeter…will no doubt be equipped with some electronic countermeasures capability to deflect jamming from more powerful ground radars…
However…we can see that the advantage in terms of pure power is with the ground radar…if the aircraft or missile is carrying jamming equipment…the ground radar can burn through that noise because of its greater electrical power…
Now things get even more interesting when we consider a new wrinkle in electronic warfare…which does not employ noise to scramble the opponent’s radar…but rather a sophisticated method of ‘reading’ the missile radar’s radio signal…and then exactly duplicating that signal and bouncing it back…
If you bounce the same signal back out of phase…ie the radio sine wave is delayed by 180 degrees from the original…the two signals cancel each other out…and the radar target disappears…this is the principle on which noise-canceling headsets work…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise-cancelling_headphones
In radar jamming, the technology is called digital radio frequency memory [DRFM]…and there has been a fair bit of speculation in the US media that the Russians have developed such systems that can literally cause air-to-air missiles fired by US fighter jets…to simply miss…
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/04/pentagon-worries-that-russia-can-now-outshoot-u-s-stealth-jets.html
‘…these new jammers essentially blind the small radars found onboard air-to-air missiles like the Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM, which is the primary long-range weapon for all U.S. and most allied fighter planes…’
More here…
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/12/04/dont-panic-but-pentagon-now-things-russia-can-jam-american-air-to-air-missiles/
Now the logical connection here is that if indeed the Russian electronic attack [EA] capability is as speculated and that they can defeat AAM missiles using necessarily lightweight equipment on board a fighter jet…then it is surely not a stretch to suppose that much more powerful ground systems could do the same thing with Tomahawks…
Now it is important to note here that Tomahawks are capable of hitting only stationary targets…not moving ones…this is because they lack a radar homing capability…ie a radar that is designed to scan and lock onto a moving target…this is called a ‘seeker’ in a missile…and obviously radar-homing AAM missiles have them…Tomahawks don’t…
So for those people who may be wondering about the possibility of a huge Tomahawk salvo taking out Russian air defenses in Syria…that is not a possibility…Russia long ago realized the importance of mobility in SAM systems…the shoot and scoot philosophy…every S300, S400, Buk and Pantsir is mobile…they set up and shoot in a few minutes…
And also worth pointing out that shooting down Tomahawks would not be done with S300 or S400…each S300 round would cost almost as much as a Tomahawk…and there is a better tool for the job…it would be done by point defense systems like the Pantsir…which is designed specifically for that kind of job…
http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Rus-PLA-PD-SAM.html
https://sputniknews.com/military/20121020176766725/
So to sum up now…we know for sure that 36 Tomahawks out of 59 have disappeared into thin air…we have not had reports of any air defense fire on that night…nor any eye witness accounts from the populace about missiles exploding in air or errant Tomahawks blowing up in some farmer’s field…
So what happened…?
Well…considering Konashenkov’s sly remark…and all the other circumstantial evidence…it would seem that the Russian EA systems basically turned the Tomahawks into duds…
This is not without technical basis…from what is known about the TERCOM system…it will shut down the missile if there is some kind of anomaly in resolving the readings from the separate guidance systems…ie if the readings from the INS…the radio altimeter…the air data instruments…and the terrain map in computer memory…do not add up…then the missile can simply shut down…
It might go something like this…everything is working fine except the radio altimeter is ‘spoofed’ with fake returns that tell the missile it’s flying too high…the computer responds by commanding a nose-down maneuver…and splash…the BGM-109 goes into the night sea…never to be seen or heard again…
I can tell you one thing…there is a heck of a lot of head-scratching going on right now in the Pentagon and at Boeing…who builds them…
I would guess that the psychological aspect of this would be profound…
Especially since those 36 seem to have vanished without trace…now it can certainly be possible that some simply missed while others were brought down by Pantsirs…Syria has about 50 of them…
But the shock and awe impact would certainly not be equal to this apparent ‘magical’ disappearing act…
When one operates from the premise of a lie, it is very difficult to maintain a belivable narrative. The empire is on it’s last legs, still dangerous, but hopefully soon inert.
Leading by lying is obviously an abomination, but very powerful!
1)
it glues all partners in crime together.
2)
the gazillions of court-goys, who just want a nice paycheck but are not committed to the cause of Zion, realize too late that there is no easy way out for them.
3)
The ‘by the way of deception’ philosophy becomes intrinsically generational and inbred.
4)
Whistle-blowing becomes almost impossible. Fellow slaves will kill you, when they see that you have the guts to try to escape. The mere fact that someone tries to escape makes them realize their dominate character trait – cowardice – and that is the last thing they want to be reminded of.
And so on…
Cafe comrades. Let us consider and deconstruct some timelines.
The RF MoD stated the US attack on Syria was planned prior to the (alleged) casus belli of the (unverified and extremely implausible) “sarin” gas event at Khan Sheikhoun.
The US Navy Institute has an account of the planning and execution of what is now derisively dismissed as Trumps 59-missile “tweet”.
https://news.usni.org/2017/04/07/us-planned-executed-tomahawk-strike
The USNI account has a pic, with caption: USS Ross (DDG 71) sits pierside in Rota, Spain. Ross is forward-deployed to Rota, Spain on March 29, 2017. US Navy Photo
So on March 29 the vessel is docked in Spain. By April 5 it is sitting off Syrian coast, ready to engage.
So how likely is it that a vessel that is docked in Spain, is, just four to five days later, just “happens” to be “in the neighbourhood” ready for combat without prior warning or planning????
Curious minds are intrigued.
In the same way that the Russian navy Admiral Grigorovich moves from pier side in Sevastopol toSyrian coast in less than 5 days.
Hah!!!
My suspicions confirmed! The Syrian “sarin” crap-acting u-toob “false flag”WAS pre-planned by the US.
The USS Porter was docked in Spain on March 29in a photo appearing online at US Navy Institute.
By April 4-5 Porter is sitting off the Syrian coast, in position to fire Trump’s 59-missile tweet.
By April 11Porter is back, docked in Spain
So why did Porter sail from Spain to Syria and “just happen to be in the neighbourhood” ready to deliver the missile attack, only to then immediately return to Spain?
Destroyer USS Porter Returns to Homeport Following Tomahawk Strike; USS Ross Remains Station
1/ https://news.usni.org/2017/04/07/us-planned-executed-tomahawk-strike
2/https://news.usni.org/2017/04/11/destroyer-uss-porter-returns-homeport-following-tomahawk-strike-uss-ross-remains-station
This intel dovetails neatly with the background provided by Ray McGovern that some 60 days prior, the RF used the “deconfliction hotline” to advise the US it intended to strike in the ISUS held location of Khan Sheikhoun.
What did the US DID know??? And when did they know it?
According to McGovern the Syrians targeted Khan Sheikhoun because intel showed it was a weapons and explosives depot for Islamic rebels.
The Syrian pilots expected their April 4bombing to result in a large explosion of ammunition. What they did not know was that ISUS was also storing chemicals at the location. {or, were the chemicals placed in the location in anticipation: remember, the US had plenty of advance warning this was a target?}
But what if the US DID know???
It is long accepted that there are rarely “coincidences” in these events. So we can only ponder and Marvell* at the astonishingly provident coincidence that USS Porter JUST HAPPENED to be sitting off the Syrian coast, with tomahawks at the ready, for the April 6 Trump-tantrum 59-missile “tweet”.
*It’s a Marvel! Just like in a comic book. US we R superheros! We write the script, so we win!
https://gosint.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/former-cia-analyst-ray-mcgovern-debunks-the-alleged-syria-chemical-attack/
Trump accomplished precisely what he intended with this strike: He gave Assad a bloody nose, and he let Russia and Iran know that unlike the feckless Obama he will not play by one set of rules (asking the Security Council “mother may I”) while Russia and its vassals play by another.
In all the fussing and bellyaching about how poorly US hardware performs, and that one skipper has a vagina, you seem to have missed inserting a reference to the soft sailors aboard Ross and Porter demanding hot cocoa before they would launch, while the stalwart Russian and Syrian soldiers sleep in the woods and drink swamp water. So use this one, please.
23 out of 59. Extremely poor performance.
What is even worse, 24 hours later, Syrian jets are using the same airfield again.
No wonder poor McCain is throwing tantrums again.
As a rule, if Sen. McCain supports something it’s usually bad; and if he opposes it then it’s probably good.
Sen. McCain’s complaining is as solid an endorsement as anything.
Also, a few key points you must understand even if they offend you:
1. The US Navy is fully aware of the capabilities and limitations of both the Tomahawk missile, and the air defenses in Syria. 59 missiles were launched anticipating that a number of them would be shot down.
2. If the US didn’t crater the runway, it’s for one reason only: The US didn’t want to crater the runway.
3. Sen. McCain complains that President Trump didn’t disable this airbase and laments that more air bases weren’t attacked. Sen. McCain, as always, missing the bigger picture.
An essay at http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/04/10/kore-a10.html concludes with some interesting thoughts as to the relationship between Korea and Syria… pax
After concluding the flow testing phase, Afek Oil and Gas will now begin analyzing samples drawn from the Ness-2 drilling site, euphemistically dubbed “Deborah’s Well,” in the Israeli-occupied region of Syria known as the Golan Heights. New Jersey-based Genie Energy, Ltd., Afek’s parent company, claims a dubious cadre of investors cum war profiteers, including Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney, Lord Jacob Rothschild, James Woolsey — as well as a number of current and former U.S. politicians.
To understand U.S. involvement in the quagmire in Syria, Afek’s oil exploration is of critical import.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Cheney%2C_Rothschild%2C_And_Fox_News%E2%80%99_Murdoch_Violate_International_Law_By_Drilling_For_Oil_In_Syria/57834/0/38/38/Y/M.html
Ok…so now that more information is trickling in about the US cruise missile strike…it is a good time to try to address some of the technical questions people have been asking here…including…
Why did only 23 of 59 missiles launched reach their target…?
Why didn’t the Russians use S300 and S400 to shoot down the missiles…?
Did the Russians take any defensive measures against the incoming Tomahawks…?
None of this has been explained in official pronouncements from either side…and of course people need to know…
The article posted here does not address these technical questions adequately…and it makes things more confusing by mixing in a political discussion…
I will give here only a technical discussion…and leave the political questions for another thread…
I will start by saying that there is generally a great lack of understanding among the general population of even the basic principles of modern warfare technology…this is unfortunate, because this subject is actually not that difficult for the layman to understand quite adequately…
Unfortunately, this lack of understanding is due… I would assert… to the fact that most of the so-called media materials available on the technical aspects of weapons systems…especially aerial systems like aircraft and missiles…are ridiculously inept and provide no understanding or furtherance of knowledge to the layman reader…
Case in point…two widely read aerospace and defense ‘analysts’ in the US media are Tyler Rogoway [Time] and Dave Majumdar [National Interest]…neither of these two individuals has any kind of technical qualifications that I can find…such as an engineering degree or pilot credentials, either civilian or military…they act basically as stenographers for the Pentagon’s PR machine…
In fact…individuals who do have the technical and practical qualifications…and also the ability to write well are very few and far between…
In the English language the only such individuals I know are Peter Collins [recently deceased], a former UK military test pilot and longtime writer for FlightGlobal…and the team at Air Power Australia…which includes Dr. Carlo Kopp, a highly competent aerospace engineer, and Peter Goon, who also holds an engineering degree and is a graduate of the US Naval Test Pilot School and has logged many flying hours in both military and civilian aircraft…incidentally, in order to become a test pilot it is mandatory to also possess an engineering degree…
The home page for Air Power Australia is here…
http://www.ausairpower.net/
And here is a good flight review by Peter Collins of the new Russian Yak-130 advanced jet trainer/light attack aircraft…
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/flight-test-yak-130-proves-versatility-373512/
So on to the subject at hand…what really happened with 36 of those 59 Tomahawks that are ‘unaccounted’…?
A very interesting remark has now been made by Igor Konashenkov, as reported in Sputnik…
’…The spokesman suggested that it was noteworthy that only 23 of the 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from US Navy destroyers made it to their targets at Ash Sha’irat. “It is not clear whether the other 36 cruise missiles landed,” Konashenkov said, without offering any more details…’
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201704091052462296-russian-syria-air-defense-upgrade/
Of course, we all know that highly ‘sensitive’ information is closely guarded by every nation…so the most we can do when trying to dissect these official pronouncements is to note which particular points are emphasized…
The fact that Konashenkov…only now after several days have passed…for the first time emphasizes the very poor success ratio of the Tomahawk strike…can be read as the ‘cat that swallowed the canary smile…’
Now say what you will about the Tomahawk…but I will state unequivocally here that there is no chance in Hades that any major weapon system with a known success rate of under 40 percent would be fielded in active duty…
Translation…the ‘unaccounted’ 36 were almost certainly brought down…one way or another…and that is going to be the topic of this discussion…
So let’s first start by understanding how the BGM-109 Tomahawk works…
The missile is about 20 feet [6 meters] long and about 21 inches [0.52 meters] in diameter…it has a cylindrical airframe with foldout wings for lift during flight and tail surfaces for maneuvering control…
It is launched vertically from tubes on warships and submarines by means of a solid-propellant rocket motor [similar to a firecracker…and unlike a liquid-fuel rocket engine]…which detaches after the launch…
Once launched the missile’s wings pop out and its on-board propulsion system kicks in…this being a small turbofan engine similar in concept to the turbofans used on passenger jets…the engine is located in the aft section of the fuselage as are the tail surfaces…
The missile weight is about 2,900 lb [1,400 kg] …and the thrust of its engine is 600 lb [270 kg]…its speed is about 550 mph and its range is up to about 1,500 miles [2,500 km]…depending on version…
So we see that its speed is subsonic…about Mach 0.7… slightly slower than the speed a passenger jet flies at…
Most important, the BGM-109 is very accurate…its circle error probable is estimated at about 20 ft…[6 m]…the precise figure is classified but this is a good estimate accepted by experts…
Now before getting on to the specific details of the missile’s systems…it’s important to note that the airfield that was bombed sustained only very minor damage to its runways…this detail is notable due to the missile’s high accuracy and the fact that destroying the runways would have certainly been the primary mission objective…since this is the most vital part of an airfield…an airfield is no longer an airfield if its runways are destroyed…
From the imagery that has been made public…the missiles that did hit the field…most missed the runways quite badly…assuming that the runways would be at least 60 to 100 ft [20 to 30 m] wide…this does not look at all like the accuracy typical of a Tomahawk strike…
So what caused nearly two thirds of the launched Tomahawks to miss…?…[actually 60 were launched but one was acknowledged as having failed in flight…]
So let’s look now at the most important aspect of this weapon…its guidance system…
Now the general public seems to think that missiles and military aircraft rely mostly on satellite navigation like GPS or the Russian Glonass [incidentally every smartphone you buy comes with both GPS and Glonass receivers since the combination further increases accuracy]…
That’s great for smartphones…but for military purposes GPS is used very sparingly and almost always as a last-tier backup…the reason is that in an all-out war the low earth orbit [LEO] satellites that comprise the GPS and Glonass constellations can be easily taken out…either with long-range SAMs…or even with missiles launched from jets…the high-flying [over 20 km height] MiG-31 carries a missile just for that purpose…
The fact of the matter is that aircraft [both civilian and military], and missiles [both cruise and ballistic] rely primarily on a navigation system known as inertial navigation…this is basically a gyroscope-based system…a gyroscope being a spinning wheel…kind of like a flywheel…
The idea is that a spinning wheel wants to keep spinning in exactly its orientation…just like a spinning top…due to its rotational inertia…hence the name inertial navigation…so if the gyro wheel is oriented vertically it will want to keep spinning vertically…due to Newton’s First Law of Motion which tells us that an object in motion will tend to continue its motion in both speed and direction… unless acted on by an outside force…
Now if we put that spinning gyro into a so-called gimbal mount which lets the gyro remain in its orientation regardless of the mount position…we can hold that mount in our hands and turn it any which way and the gyro will remain spinning exactly in its upright position…
If we mount that gyro in an airplane and the airplane starts a banking turn to one side…the gyro will likewise stay perfectly vertical…and the pilot can immediately see that the angle between the airplane surface to which the gyro gimbal is mounted…and the gyro itself…has now changed…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroscope
This is the basic principle of how gyros let pilots fly ‘blind’ ie in weather conditions where you cannot see the horizon for reference…or in total darkness…you just look at your gyro and you see that your airplane has departed from its straight and level attitude and is now banked…here is an article that explains this…
http://science.howstuffworks.com/gyroscope.htm
Now gyroscopes are one of those key inventions…like the stirrup in earlier centuries…that have had a profound impact on warfare…[and also on civilian air travel and space flight]…without the gyroscope safe air travel would be almost impossible…
But the gyroscope is also the basis for navigation systems on board aircraft, spacecraft and missiles…
If we go back to our simple example of the spinning gyro wheel…and we place sensors that measure acceleration on that gyro gimbal…then when the plane starts to bank…the sensor [which could be as simple as a spring] would detect the motion…
Now if you have three gyros each oriented in one of three possible axes of motion…ie our original vertical gyro which is aligned in the fore-aft direction and detects aircraft bank or roll…one horizontal gyro which detects aircraft nose pitch…either up or down…and another vertical gyro but oriented in the left to right direction…which detects yaw or side to side rotation of the aircraft…then you have a complete picture of where your air vehicle is headed at any given moment…
With accelerometers on each gyro we can also keep a running record of the exact accelerations involved in each of those changes of direction…
Now here is the neat part…if we know our exact position where we started…ie our exact longitude and latitude coordinates…then the record of our aircraft’s movements as recorded by the accelerometers can be computed to give us our actual position at any time in our flight…
In other words, the instrument knows where the aircraft or spacecraft is at any time because it has been keeping track of each change in its direction and speed…
This doesn’t actually require three separate gyros…a single gyro with gimbals that allow freedom of rotation in all three axes will work the same way…
Btw…this gyro speed and position ‘computation’ does not actually require an electronic computer as the math involved is simple integral calculus that can be done by a mechanical computer…similar in principle to a clock…like the IMP Globus that was used for many years on Voskhod spacecraft…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_Spacecraft_%22Globus%22_IMP_navigation_instrument
Now I know this is a rather long and perhaps boring explanation of a bit of technical arcana…but rest assured that this type of navigation instrument is as essential to the national security as the nuclear warhead itself…
The reason is that this self-contained navigation system does not rely on outside signals such as radio [radar and GPS] which can be jammed…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_guidance#Inertial_guidance
I had mentioned this earlier in my discussion about the new US ‘super fuze’ for its sea-launched ICBMs [on another thread]…which happens to have added a radar altimeter to an ICBM for the first time in history…in order to measure its height from the ground…an exceedingly stupid idea that now makes all US SLBMs vulnerable to what perhaps happened to the Trump Tomahawks to cause them to miss…
Now today’s inertial navigation systems [INS] no longer use mechanical gyros with spinning wheels…they use sophisticated devices like the laser ring gyro [a beam of laser light going in a circle still has rotational inertia]…and they use electronic computers…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_navigation_system
Here’s a Ukranian-made laser gyro…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_laser_gyroscope#/media/File:Ring_laser_gyroscope_at_MAKS-2011_airshow.jpg
They are quite accurate…but do lose a small amount of position error over time…about half a mile for each hour of flying time in good systems…still for a cruise missile that is flying for over two hours that means an error of a mile or more if relying solely on INS…
So the INS position errors must be corrected with another instrument…again, we could simply use GPS for that…but that brings up other problems…
Besides the possibility of having your satellites shot down in war…the radio signals from GPS are not always available at any point on earth at any given time…since the satellites orbit the earth and are therefore not ‘hovering’ over any one spot…and you need several satellites overhead simultaneously in order to make a position fix based on triangulation…
So the preferable way is another type of instrument to correct the INS…in cruise missiles that system is called terrain contour matching or TERCOM…
It works like this…cruise missiles like the Tomahawk are basically an automatically-piloted subsonic aircraft that is designed to fly close to ground level throughout its flight…this is crucial because ground hugging makes any aircraft harder to detect by radar…for one thing it won’t be picked up by radar until it gets over the visible horizon…by which time it may be as close as 20 miles and could hit in about 2 minutes if flying at 550 mph…and the missile can further elude radar by using terrain features as cover…like hills etc…by flying what’s called a nap-of-the earth profile…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nap_of_the_earth
The guidance system of the Tomahawk contains a terrain map of its flight path to its target…this allows it to fly the ground-hugging profile…
This is nothing new since geographical data like terrain maps are published by every country…In fact even a small, private propeller airplane is often equipped with these terrain maps in its on-board avionics…in order to prevent flying into mountains or antenna towers and such…
However any ground-hugging system does require one piece of radio equipment…the radar altimeter…which is basically a very simple radar that measures the distance from the ground to the aircraft…every passenger jet is equipped with one…only we call them radio altimeters in aviation parlance…
So this is how the TERCOM works…the pre-loaded map in the guidance computer on board the Tomahawk works in step with the INS which tells the missile where it is…
The radio altimeter measures the missile’s height above the ground and compares that with readings from a barometric altimeterwhich is a simple device found on all aircraft large and small…and gives height above sea level…by comparing the two altimeter readings with the terrain map the missile knows exactly where it is…and the INS is then corrected for position error with the information from the two altimeters and the terrain map…
’…The TERCOM system uses a radar altimeter and barometric altimeter to measure the profile of the terrain beneath the aircraft. This information is then compared with stored terrain profile information within the memory of the TERCOM computer to yield a position update. The update is then fed into the INS. The exercise of measuring and matching the terrain profile is carried out only several times during the weapon’s flight, this provides sufficient accuracy while limiting the size of the computer memory required to store the terrain maps…’
http://ausairpower.net/TE-Cruise-Missiles-1985.html
It is important to note here that GPS was not operational until 1990…while the Tomahawk and related cruise missiles came into service in 1983…
Also important to note is that a GPS receiver…whether civilian or military… only receives radio signals from the satellites…and does not transmit…
Further…the military signals transmitted are encrypted…in order to prevent jamming or spoofing…the encryption keys on military GPS receivers are regularly updated…in case that information falls into enemy hands…through spying for example…
It is fairly easy to jam the civilian GPS signals and it happens regularly…
’…Instances of jamming are a significant problem and getting worse, posing a threat to technologies that rely on GPS signals…[GPS] signals are easy to overpower. They are extremely weak at the receiver, and even a small, very low power jammer broadcasting a faint signal can block them. Jamming can occur anywhere from a few meters around a receiver to large swaths of water or land depending on the output power of the jammer…’
http://marineelectronicsjournal.com/content/newsm/news.asp?show=VIEW&a=128
It would follow then…that despite encryption…a jamming device could overpower the GPS signal to a military receiver on a cruise missile or aircraft…and while not decrypting it…could prevent the satellite signal from getting through…
Additionally… radio signals and other electronics are susceptible to interference from natural phenomena…
’…Solar flares and storms can affect the signals that a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) transmits along with the receivers of those signals. Dana Goward of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation (RNTF) says repetition of an incident such as the Carrington Event—a powerful solar storm in 1859 that caused telegraph systems worldwide to spark and fail, creating electric shock and fires—could cause a complete and lengthy shutdown of GNSS. Even a much milder solar storm could temporarily cause system failure, and that’s a serious problem because the US currently has no viable backup to GPS…’
Here is just one example of a mishap with a civilian GPS that resulted in a death…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_navigation_device#Mishaps
So these problems with GPS are well-known…and we can assume that military use of GPS is going to be confined to strictly a backup role whose failure would not be allowed to interfere with the delivery of the weapon to its target…
The conclusion must be that alleged jamming of the Tomahawks GPS [provided they even use GPS] would not have caused them to miss…
[Incidentally…it is for all of these reasons that GPS plays a similar, peripheral role even in passenger jets…in fact it has only been in the last few years that civil avionics have even incorporated GPS…most of the legacy aircraft flying do not use GPS…as mentioned the INS ‘drift’ errors can be corrected with the aircraft’s air data instruments and earth-based radio navigation signals…]
So what caused more than 60 percent of the Tomahawks to go off course…?
To find the answer we must figure out what is the Achilles Heel in that cruise missile guidance system…we know it’s not the INS because it is a self-contained gyro system that doesn’t use radio signals and therefore cannot be tampered with from outside… ie without physical access…
We know it’s not the barometric altimeter or other air data instruments…like airspeed which is measured with a pitot tube [invented more than 200 years ago]…these also cannot be tampered with from outside…
We can assume that the computer that does all the processing for the INS, the terrain map, and the TERCOM can also not be hacked without direct physical access since it does not communicate over a network in any way…it is completely self-contained…[there is no such known technology to remotely hack a non-networked computer…and it would certainly be the holy grail of modern warfare to be able to hack your opponent’s missiles while they are in flight…]
That leaves only the radar altimeter…and we certainly know that radars can be jammed…
Up until recently jamming of radars was done by trying to disrupt them with electronic noise…for example an aircraft flying in the vicinity of air defense radars will carry an electronic jamming pod that will try to disrupt the ground radars…
We must get into some technical details here…an important aspect of any radar is its electrical power…a ground or ship-based radar can have a huge diesel generator making hundreds of kilowatts of power…an aircraft in flight can make only a few kilowatts…and usually those jamming pods have little propellers on their tips used for generating power…[they’re called air turbines…]
A missile with a radar on it…even if it’s just a radar altimeter…will no doubt be equipped with some electronic countermeasures capability to deflect jamming from more powerful ground radars…
However…we can see that the advantage in terms of pure power is with the ground radar…if the aircraft or missile is carrying jamming equipment…the ground radar can burn through that noise because of its greater electrical power…
Now things get even more interesting when we consider a new wrinkle in electronic warfare…which does not employ noise to scramble the opponent’s radar…but rather a sophisticated method of ‘reading’ the missile radar’s signal…and then exactly duplicating that signal and bouncing it back in a way designed to ‘spoof’ the missile’s radar…
One such example…If you bounce the same signal back out of phase…ie the radio sine wave is delayed by 180 degrees from the original…the two signals cancel each other out…and the radar target disappears…this is the principle on which noise-canceling headsets work…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise-cancelling_headphones
In radar jamming, the technology is called digital radio frequency memory [DRFM]…and there has been a fair bit of speculation in the US media that the Russians have developed such systems that can literally cause air-to-air missiles fired by US fighter jets…to simply miss…
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/04/pentagon-worries-that-russia-can-now-outshoot-u-s-stealth-jets.html
‘…these new jammers essentially blind the small radars found onboard air-to-air missiles like the Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM, which is the primary long-range weapon for all U.S. and most allied fighter planes…’
More here…
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/12/04/dont-panic-but-pentagon-now-things-russia-can-jam-american-air-to-air-missiles/
Now the logical connection here is that if indeed the Russian electronic attack [EA] capability is as effective as speculated and that they can defeat AAM missiles using necessarily lightweight equipment on board a fighter jet…then it is surely not a stretch to suppose that much more powerful ground systems could do the same thing with Tomahawks…
Now it is important to note here that Tomahawks are capable of hitting only stationary targets…not moving ones…this is because they lack a radar homing capability…ie a radar that is designed to scan and lock onto a moving target…this is called a ‘seeker’ in a missile…and obviously radar-homing AAM missiles have them…as do anti-ship missiles…
So for those people who may be wondering about the possibility of a huge Tomahawk salvo taking out Russian air defenses in Syria…that is not a possibility…Russia long ago realized the importance of mobility in SAM systems…the shoot and scoot philosophy…every S300, S400, Buk and Pantsir is mobile…they set up and shoot in a few minutes and are moving all the time…the Tomahawk can only hit known targets programmed into its map…
Also worth pointing out is that shooting down Tomahawks would not be done with S300 or S400…each S300 round would cost almost as much as a Tomahawk…and there is a better tool for the job…it would be done by point defense systems like the Pantsir…which is designed specifically for that kind of job…
http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Rus-PLA-PD-SAM.html
https://sputniknews.com/military/20121020176766725/
So to sum up now…we know for sure that 36 Tomahawks out of 59 have disappeared into thin air…we have not had reports of any air defense fire on that night…we do have some reports of errant Tomahawk hits on nearby villages…
So what happened…?…well…considering Konashenkov’s sly remark…and all the other circumstantial evidence…it would seem possible that the Russian EA systems basically turned the Tomahawks into duds…
This is not without technical basis…from what is known about the TERCOM system…it will shut down the missile if there is some kind of anomaly in resolving the readings from the separate guidance instruments…ie the INS…the radio altimeter…the air data instruments…and the terrain map in computer memory…
It would go something like this…everything is working fine except the radio altimeter is ‘spoofed’ with fake returns that tell the missile it’s flying too high…the computer responds by commanding a nose-down maneuver…and splash…the BGM-109 goes into the night sea…never to be seen or heard again…or plows into a hillside…
Incidentally…the pentagon is claiming…preposterously…that all 59 missiles hit their target…we can see from pictures of the airfield that only a few craters are there…plus some reports of missiles hitting nearby villages…
As mentioned…the mission of destroying the runways on that airfield was not accomplished…and just looking at the craters it is clear that…even the few missiles that got through missed the runways badly…
I can tell you one thing…there is a heck of a lot of head-scratching going on right now in the Pentagon and at Boeing…who builds them…
I would guess that the psychological aspect of this would be profound…
Especially since those 36 seem to have vanished without trace…now it can certainly be possible that some simply missed while others were brought down by Pantsirs…Syria has about 50 of them…
But the shock and awe impact would certainly not be equal to this ‘magical’ disappearing act…
Plse accept mod apologies for the delay in posting this. There was a technical hold up. Your contributions are highly respected and valued. mod fk
Hi Flanker. Great comment.
Note that GPS and Glonass satellites orbit at medium heights of 20,200 and 19,100 respectively. That’s not Low Earth Orbit, which would be less than 2000 km, typically perhaps 400 km. Shooting something moving in Low Earth Orbit is, I would say, completely out of the question. Consider that orbital speed at low orbit of 400 km would be about 6 or 7 km/s, so good luck trying to hit an object moving at that speed. Both Uncle Sam and Uncle Ivan make military and other claims that are far removed from what’s technically possible. It’s all propaganda.
I also don’t think that the principal target of the Usanian missile strike was the runway, which can be repaired quickly and cheaply using nothing but concrete and ordinary construction machinery. Rather, they wanted to show that they can blow the place up, turn everything into rubble. An objective they did not achieve.
Other than that a lot of good points here.
Like that the S300/S400 would not be used for that job. A quite primitive heatseaker at the right spot could do that job sufficiently well. The problem is to have them at the right spot. You need many.
And the energy advantage the seaborne or land-based radar system has over airborne ones.
» So to sum up now…we know for sure that 36 Tomahawks out of 59 have disappeared into thin air… «
Actually, there’s nothing we know for sure here. Why would the Russians publish the truth? This is war. From the Russian video footage of the airbase, it seemed to me that even less than 23 missiles had reached the base. It looked indeed like “extremely low combat efficiency”. :)
I also think that many missiles were persuaded to splash or crash.
By the way, some people belittled the Tomahawk as old technology. This is not so, of course. It’a trusted mainstay of the Usanian terror navy, a tried and true workhorse of plutocratic aggression. Sure to have seen update after update over the years.
» I would guess that the psychological aspect of this would be profound… «
Yes. Some head-scratching going on. But Uncle Sam will persevere. He’s like the plague. Must be exterminated. Not the people, of course, but the potential for aggression developed from the safety of a practically unassailable homeland protected by oceans.
Lumi…
Yes you are correct on the orbit of 20,000 km…that’s medium earth orbit [MEO] not LEO as I misstated…thanks for catching that…
That orbit is indeed beyond the reach of earth-based rocket interceptors…either SAMs or aircraft launched…
However there are many vulnerabilities to navsat [GPS Glonass etc]…the most critical one is that the radio signals are quite weak by the time they reach the receiver here on earth…which means that a stronger signal from a transmitter that is much closer could interfere and cause significant problems…
The problem of solar flares and storms…geomagnetic storms etc… is also quite real and quite unpredictable…
On commercial aircraft…the FAA requires aircraft that do use GPS to have alternative navigation…
‘…Commercial aircraft that use GPS are required to maintain alternative means of navigation. If intentional jamming were directed against aircraft, the pilots would revert to other sensors and ground-based navigation aids. Air traffic control would continue to provide surveillance services and ensure aircraft separation…’
http://www.gps.gov/support/faq/
As I said…GPS is only recently and slowly being integrated into commercial jet avionics suites…[INS and radar control guidance is still the mainstay of nav]…
For use in Aviation…there must be at least 5 satellites in view…this is not always the case…in that case the GPS is not available…something called Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring…
‘…Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) provides integrity monitoring of GPS for aviation applications. In order for a GPS receiver to perform RAIM or fault detection (FD) function, a minimum of five visible satellites with satisfactory geometry must be visible to it…RAIM availability is an important issue when using such kind of algorithm in safety-critical applications (as the aeronautical ones); in fact, because of geometry and satellite service maintenance, RAIM is not always available at all, meaning that the receiver’s antenna could have sometimes fewer than five satellites in view…’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receiver_autonomous_integrity_monitoring
Translation…depending on the equipment you have in front of you…and whether it gives you automatic RAIM warnings…you really don’t know how much to trust it…
Getting back to interference with the signals…there is lots of info on ‘spoofing’ which is particularly dangerous because it basically takes over the vehicle with false signals that the GPS receiver interprets as coming from the satellite…
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-american-militarys-greatest-weakness-no-gps-war-18085
http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/16698/hacking/gps-vulnerability-exploitable-to-control-the-route-of-a-vessel.html
Sputnik reported last year that RF has developed a system that places jamming pods on ordinary cell phone towers to create a wide network that would make it impossible for GPS transmissions to get through…and therefore any aircraft or missiles that depend on them basically defeated…
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201608251044633778-russia-jammer-electronics/
Of course it would also make glonass signals unusable in the vicinity…but any weapons carrying Glonass receivers would presumably be on the other side of the world…heading for the USA…
@Flankerbandit
That was an excellent posting (huge understatement). Cut, pasted and stored in both the electronic and biological neural database.
I propose that this comment be submitted as a separate article on the Saker site.
Thanks (start your own blog you’re great!)
Well done, thou good and faithful teacher! What a wonderfully patient and detailed explanation! I will read it again — find the lesson fascinating. Thank you for your time and knowledge. I used to earn my living as tech editor for engineers and scientists — not very many, as you say, have both the expertise and the ability to write down their expertise for a nonexpert to comprehend (which is why I was employed to help bridge that gap); so I much admire your talents.
I have been very skeptical of claims that the attack was “not intended” to totally destroy that airbase, runways and all else. This on-site report from ANNA News shows that even with only the 23, the damage was considerable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfWcXkgyzio&feature=youtu.be
I get a real kick out of
“ ‘It is not clear whether the other 36 cruise missiles landed,’ Konashenkov said, without offering any more details…”
There is a special lilt and finesse to Russian understatement. Just makes me smile.
I think I read that these missiles are built by Raytheon. That was an error?
[Do you think a missile like this could be what bored three layers into the Pentagon on 9/11/01?]
Amazing!!!! Thank you for such an awesome lesson!
http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/202560/why-the-navy-should-retire-tlam-n/#comments
the technical discussion of the more primitive nuke version missile that one assumes might fly over korea…
the radar return essentially makes a series of dots un unlike machine numerical code…and machine gets lost easy…
@ Anonymous…
Thanks for the link…a good discussion of Tomahawk guidance…
You will note that the first comment after the article asks why not use GPS for nuclear-tipped Tomahawks…the answer given…
‘…A GPS module is subject to jamming and spoofing, which raises its own set of issues. Violating the “black box” rule on a nuclear weapon system would be a big organizational change for the United States military…Not that I think the “black box” is sacrosanct, just that I observe the Navy might prefer non-GPS solutions for nuclear munitions…’
The ‘black-box rule’ for nuclear weapons being quite simply the principle of a self-contained guidance system as discussed in my comment above…due to the very serious risk of jamming and spoofing and kind of radio device…including GPS and radar…
Apparently the US decided to throw the black box rule out the window with its new ‘super-fuze’ which is said to be now in use on all ‘upgraded’ sub-launched ICBMs…ie the Trident missile…
As noted above and in my wider discussion on the thread on that topic…the use is made of a radar altimeter…which indeed can be spoofed or jammed…just like GPS…here is some basic info on radar altimeters…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_altimeter
The article you pointed to does give a competent technical discussion…the author gives a good chart of the evolution of guidance systems on the various Tomahawk versions…with GPS being added in Block 3 as of 1994…you will notice though that GPS is always named last after the other nav systems…
He points out that the Tomahawks used in the 2003 strike on Iraq were pretty much all equipped with GPS…and they achieved over 98 percent success…but still about 10 ‘clobbering’ into hillsides in Turkey and Saudi Arabia…
On the earlier Desert Storm Tomahawks in 1991 which did not use GPS, we do not have figures about lost or ‘clobbered’ Tomahawks…if large numbers had gone astray and landed in other countries…we would have known…
It is also worth noting that in 1991 both Turkey and Syria denied overflight rights…so the ingress routes for the missiles were more challenging in 1991 than in 2003…
So it is not clear how much reliance is placed on GPS at present…that is not public knowledge…
But I would assume say that, as in civil and military aviation…its role is probably third-tier…not primary or secondary…it is just not reliable enough…
It is however interesting to compare the accuracy of the 1991 Tomahawks used against Iraq and the 2003 ones…apparently the issue in 1991 was not that the missiles clobbered into terrain on their way…but that they did not come close enough to their actual targets…ie terminal guidance…
Presumably, in 2003 that target kill rate improved…but again we are guessing…
Now with this latest strike…we see a just catastrophic result…
So we have a case where 36 of the missiles have clobbered…either on their own…or more likely due to enemy interference as I posit…and the additional poor terminal performance…ie the few that did get through largely missed a very large target…airfield runways…
So there is really a lot more ground to cover here if we get into terminal versus en route guidance…and there is also the issue of the quality of the terrain maps and how they are put together…but all of that would require a somewhat lengthy discussion of its own…
For the time being…the simple fact is that this strike was a complete disaster [although, predictably, not a peep form the US media] …and we can safely assume that a lot of that had to do with defensive electronic warfare…
A great victory for the Russian-Syrian defense…no doubt about that…
PS…correction on Tomahawk manufacturer…it is Raytheon not Boeing as I had misstated…
Typical Azi propaganda article for nuke fanboys. Displaying the mindset of perverts. Read more of them and you recognize the tone. The Azi Empire has a truely huge propaganda apparatus. They can feed so many propagandists because they have other peoples work for them. It’s a great system from their point of view … and they want to keep it. Don’t help them, don’t buy their lies, don’t spread their lies.
Consider the amount of deception that has been used, so far.
If Russia did not actively bring down those missiles, then I believe they may have been programmed to fail, in order to create a false perception, by Russia’s forces.
The US has antigravity B3 bombers, and TR-3B style close ground support platforms, whose effective weight is small, because most mass is cancelled. There are these red glowing plasma balls. Those are ours too. The leading edges are extreme high voltage to create a frictionless plasma to fly through… And one thing that looks like an aircraft carrier, , in the sky…or a small city with literally hundreds of windows.
Do not underestimate the hubris of the pentagon.
Фланкербандит
Thanks for the analysis. Really nice job.