Back in 1967 I went to this small club, “Oloe Strut”, seating about 200, to see a up and coming rocker….one Jimi Hendrix…. because this week 50 years ago he released his first album, “Hey Joe”……and the rest, as they say, was history.
The best way to explain his genius is to sit back and listen……enjoy.
Please have a good weekend my friends…..chuq
According to most reports the war on ISIS is going well…their controlled region is shrinking almost daily…..the MSM has only slightly touched on this because the circus around our new president seems to be more compelling…..but there are reports that need to be reported……
ISIS
After two years of holding territory in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State’s ability to produce its own weapons has become so sophisticated that its production lines almost mirror those of national militaries, according to a new report by a weapons research group. – Washington Post’s Checkpoint
The Obama administration is publicly handing Donald Trump a gift as he prepares to enter the White House: a degraded ISIS. The question is what the President-elect will do with it. – CNN
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter expressed confidence Thursday that under the Trump administration the U.S. will remain central to the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. – Associated Press
But with an incoming admin which has promised to destroy ISIS what can we expect…..
How do the chances of a total defeat of ISIS appear?
The US can back groups around the Middle East to physically defeat ISIS in individual cities, and given enough time might even militarily expel ISIS from all significant territory they hold. A new report from the US Institute of Peace, however, is warning that’s not going to defeat ISIS.
The report cites a panel of experts who are saying largely what locals in Iraq and Syria have been warning about throughout the ISIS war, that the group’s territory gains weren’t just happenstance, and that sectarian tension and economic woes that played a big part in setting the stage for ISIS’ rapid rise remain not just unsolved, but largely unchanged.
Predictably, since the Institute of Peace is a US government think-tank, their proposal is that the US government do more intervening in non-military ways, i.e. nation-building, with an eye toward a lasting defeat, which they concede will take many years at any rate.
It is still noteworthy that the think-tank’s report doesn’t envision victory in any meaningful time-frame. The report also noted that President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign proposal to “bomb the shit out of” ISIS was not only unlikely to help, but was likely to make things worse, cautioning that the larger the military intervention, the bigger the jihadist reaction would be.
(antiwar.com)
I think that we will have an ISIS related group with us for a very long time….regardless what our new leader has to say on the subject.
My regulars know that I am somewhat of a history wonk….that I enjoy dropping some knowledge on my regulars whenever I find something that I think they will appreciate
I found a new site thanx for a friend of IST, w1nt3l, from his Twitter account…..it is an excellent piece with historic perspective so I had to press it here on IST…..
When republican ideology backfires…
In high school, I skipped out on physics to study history and specialised as an art student for two years. I then did history courses for another two years, while obtaining my art degree in college.
Needless to say, I learned a lot about how the world used to work, and how it still works today. To do this, we covered the political dealings of countries over the millennia; and of all the countries we studied, America has to be one of the most interesting.
To be honest, this hasn’t always been for good reasons. More often than not, America and other World Powers are painted as villains in a never-ending, always-unfolding story of life, lies, and politics.
Source: The Lingering Curse of America’s Manifest Destiny – Alexis Chateau
BAM! History!
There is not much in the news about the conflict in Syria with the exception of what is happening in the ancient city of Aleppo….there is more happeing than the MSM wants to report….
Syria
The latest effort to evacuate Syrian civilians and insurgent fighters from rebel-held neighborhoods of eastern Aleppo was bogged down Thursday morning, after one person was killed and several civilians and humanitarian aid workers were wounded while being transported to Red Cross ambulances, opposition figures said. – New York Times
The recapture of Aleppo by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces presents a stark example of Washington’s pullback in the Middle East at a time when Russia and its partners have stepped in to drive events in the nearly six-year conflict, said U.S., European and Arab officials. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The U.S. will strike Islamic State in Palmyra if Russian and Syrian government forces fail to push back and retake the Syrian city, according to the top American commander in charge of the U.S.-led coalition targeting the extremist group. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The starkly different outcomes of two pivotal battles—for Aleppo and Palmyra—showcased the priorities of the regime and its Russian and Iranian sponsors: to fight moderate Sunni rebels rather than the Sunni extremists of Islamic State. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Caught between rebels and government forces, the Syrian city of Aleppo has largely been cut off from the rest of the world in recent months. But this week, as Syrian forces advanced on rebel-held areas, residents took to social media to send pleas and heartbreaking farewells to a global audience. – Los Angeles Times
The top U.S. general for Syria and Iraq said Wednesday the U.S. will do nothing militarily or on a humanitarian basis to hinder the Russian and Syrian regime onslaught against Aleppo or ease the plight of civilians seeking to flee. – Military.com
The White House on Wednesday lashed out at critics who say it hasn’t done enough to prevent the fall of Aleppo, which could worsen a massive humanitarian crisis in Syria. – The Hill
A former NATO supreme allied commander is predicting that President Obama will regret not doing more to help the anti-regime opposition in Aleppo, Syria. – The Hill
The Islamic State group could now control sophisticated military equipment and weapons, including an air defense system, after recapturing the town of Palmyra from Russian and Syrian forces, the top U.S. general in charge of operations in Iraq and Syria said Wednesday. – Stars and Stripes
Adding 200 troops to the existing 300 would seem to bring the total Syria deployment to 500. But it doesn’t mean 200 operators are actually heading to the war zone. A Pentagon spokesman has acknowledged that Carter merely “authorized” a higher number of troops to deploy, without revealing the actual number of troops operating in the war zones. – Washington Examiner
Editorial: On Tuesday, Mr. Obama’s U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power, delivered an impassioned denunciation of the Aleppo carnage, which she said would “join the ranks of those events in world history that define modern evil, that stain our conscience decades later.” She excoriated the Assad regime, Russia and Iran but offered no acknowledgment that the stain of Aleppo extends also to her, the president and American honor. Those who will live with the long-term consequences of the Syrian catastrophe are unlikely to be so forgiving. – Washington Post
(I have a problem with this speech by Power….she accuses Russia and Iran of the same things that we are doing in Yemen….a hypocritical look at the world is what we Americans are best at doing)
Frederic Hof writes: Once [Trump] has mastered the salient facts of the Syrian crisis, will he continue with policies and polemics in western Syria that embolden Russian adventurism in the region and beyond, facilitate the hegemonic designs of Iran, and help make the propaganda case for ISIS in Sunni Muslim communities around the world? These are the things the Obama administration has, quite unintentionally, succeeded in doing. The United States can, under new management, do much better. – Defense News
(our new presidente has some thoughts about a plan for Syria and I will cover those in a post next week….(and that is called a teaser))
Hanin Ghaddar writes: This is not a civil war. Only when we stop calling it a civil war, we might be able to understand the history and strategy of the regime, the various layers of the Syrian people, the interests of those who are already intervening, and the significance of accountability. – Washington Post
That catches you up on the major ops on-going in Syria…..
Not to be confused with the “Cult of Scarro” from the Doctor Who series…..or the “Cult of Obama” that so many on the Right accused us mere mortals of suffering from….this is about our new president and it is starting to look like a cult in the making…..NO? Just listen to the people that rabidly support him….they were lied to and yet they continue to pretend that it is about the will of the people….
His followers view him as a sort of prophet of American triumphalism.
As of this writing, Donald Trump is making his cabinet picks, which aside from conspiracy-monger Steve Bannon, look like the usual rightward Wall Street and D.C. insiders. The Trump regime seems so far like it will promote an uglier and more aggressive version of the standard Republican policies: deregulation, privatization and tax cuts for the wealthy. We can expect to see over the coming years the continued decline of the middle class, a shrinking social safety net, an acceleration of environmental catastrophe, unchecked corporate malfeasance, expanding federal deficits, and a deepening of the surveillance state. There will most likely be diversionary tactics in the form of more warfare abroad and the concomitant curtailing of civil liberties at home. Trump will likely fulfill many of his campaign promises, albeit in scaled-down versions. But don’t expect his followers to abandon him even if he reneges on many key commitments from his electric, nationalistic rallies.
Source: The Cult of Trump | Alternet
Of course this will be some sort of “Left wing” conspiracy…….a conspiracy to keep him from assuming his rightful place in the hierarchy of American emperors….personally, I do not give a crap about party politics…..my concern is what any of this will do to the fabric of American society and I see a rip forming that could take decades to heal.
I will wait for the test of governing…..but for now the appearance is not looking solid.