Tag: Middle East

Psi Phi Society–Summer Session 2019

First, I would like to wish my French followers and readers a Happy Bastille Day…..”Liberté, egalité, Fraternité”

Weakened but still potent, Barry inundated the Gulf Coast but appeared unlikely to deluge New Orleans as it continued its slow advance. Still, Gov. John Bel Edwards on Saturday urged residents across south Louisiana to stay “vigilant,” warning that Barry could still cause disastrous flooding across a wide stretch of the Gulf Coast overnight. “This storm still has a long way to go before it leaves this state,” Edwards said. “Don’t let your guard down.” New Orleans had braced for heavy rains Saturday, reports the AP, but instead had intermittent bands of showers and occasional sunshine. Though Barry will continue to dump rain throughout the weekend, forecasters downgraded rainfall estimates for the city through Sunday to between 2 to 4 inches. Forecasters had earlier said New Orleans could get up to 20 inches of rain, raising concerns that water pumps strengthened after Hurricane Katrina would be overwhelmed.

Summer is in full swing and time for the Psi Phi (ΨΦ) Society get together for food, fun and debate…..(meeting must go on even thru a storm, LOL)

The society members get together four times a year at the eatery of a friend and have a good meal then we pick a subject from a stainless steel bed pan give everyone 30-45 minutes to prepare their take on the subject.

This session is the heritage site in Turkey of Gobekli Tepe…..this is a fairly new discovery of an ancient structure that has many debate what its purpose was…..

Archaeologically categorised as a site of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Period (c. 9600–7300 BC) Göbeklitepe is a series of mainly circular and oval-shaped structures set on the top of a hill. Excavations began in 1995 by Prof. Klaus Schmidt with the help of the German Archeological Institute. There is archelological proof that these installations were not used for domestic use, but predominantly for ritual or religous purposes. Subsequently it became apparent that Gobeklitepe consists of not only one, but many of such stone age temples. Furthermore, both excavations and geo magnetic results revealed that there are at least 20 installations, which in archeological terms can be called a temple. Based on what has been unearthed so far, the pattern principle seems to be that there are two huge monumental pillars in the center of each installation, surrounded by enclosures and walls, featuring more pillars in those set-ups.

http://gobeklitepe.info/

I disagree that it was nothing more than a religious site…..why?  First the location in Turkey……

The site is in an area that has many rivers and large streams…..why does this matter?  Civilization was made possible by the nearness of a waterway.  I feel this was more than just a lonely religious ceremonial site.

The possibility that inhabitants of this region could be the forefathers of the Sumerians…..https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-ancient-sumerians

The people moved down the Tigris and branched out……..

Another ancient city has been found in Iraq…older than Sumer…..

A team of French archaeologists has located the remains of a lost ancient city in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Over the course of six excavations between 2012 and 2018, researchers uncovered the ancient city at Kunara, near the Zagros mountains. Previously, experts had been prevented from exploring the site, near the modern city of Sulaymaniyah, by Saddam Hussein’s regime and conflicts in the region.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/mysterious-4000-year-old-lost-city-discovered

This is not some scholarly endeavor on my part just some thought and a little knowledge.

The Droughts in the Middle East do have their benefits…..The little known Mittani civilization has new legs in academia…..

A team of German and Kurdish archaeologists have discovered a 3,400-year-old palace that belonged to the mysterious Mittani Empire, the University of Tübingen announced on Thursday.

The discovery was only made possible by a drought that significantly reduced water levels in the Mosul Dam reservoir.

“The find is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the region in recent decades and illustrates the success of the Kurdish-German cooperation,” said Hasan Ahmed Qasim, a Kurdish archaeologist of the Duhok Directorate of Antiquites who worked on the site.

https://www.dw.com/en/iraqs-drought-unveils-3400-year-old-palace-of-mysterious-empire/a-49384876

Plus there has been an announcement about those Biblical bad boys the Philistines…..

The ancient Philistines, the Biblical villains whose origins have puzzled scholars for decades, came to the Middle East from southern Europe more than 3,000 years ago, new DNA testing has shown.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-archaeology-philistines-idUSKCN1TY2JP

If anyone would like to add their thoughts please feel free to do so.

The evening ended and we were full and content……these types of get together are always a joy….good friends and good food and a couple of great goblets of wine…..

Barry is on land now and we are getting some rain…after almost a month without it and temps of over 100 this is a bit of a respite….hopefully everyone in Louisiana was prepared .  We were.

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Iran: Time To Decide

Enough of presidential bullshit! If he thinks he is all that then let this big mouth asshole make the decision……stop waiting for the most advantageous time to do something.

President Trump promised “overwhelming force” against Iran, calling President Rouhani “ignorant and insulting” and saying his attacks on Iran would mean total obliteration in some parts of the country.

Trump also thinks it will be a short conflict…..

Trump now insists the war “wouldn’t last very long,” and he isn’t even contemplating putting “boots on the ground” in Iran. He bragged of what a “very strong position” the US is in for such a war.

To me I think it is nothing more than arrogant lip service……something this so-called “Bully” excels at giving the nation……none of his raving will benefit this nation or the Middle East,,,the only thinbg it will do is allow the Saudis to run rampant around the Middle East applying their will at the drop of a hat.

Scholars in the field of Middle East studies have made their opinions known….

Statement by leading Middle East/Islamic studies scholars, June 22, 2019

We, the undersigned scholars of the Middle East and North Africa and broader Muslim world, call on President Trump immediately to pull back from the brink of a war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is clear to us that the human, diplomatic, legal, political, and economic costs to both countries, the Persian Gulf and larger Middle East, the global economy and the global system of international humanitarian law of a US attack would be even more devastating than was the US invasion of Iraq sixteen years ago. We call upon the political leadership of the country, with a sense of urgency, not only to refrain from any further threats and uses of force against Iran, but also to put forward a new American diplomacy that takes steps to achieve a sustainable peace between our two countries and within the larger region.

We bring to the public’s attention the following points:

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/06/scholars-unmitigated-disaster/

Here is a thought….maybe we should pay attention to what experts in the Middle East have to say…..and let the rantings of DC ass lickers fall on deaf ears.

Time for the people to rein in the war hawks they have had their way for nearly 2 decades…they have made their money now put them to bad.

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”…..(I think; therefore I write)

Here Comes A War Again

To be sung to the tune of “Here Comes The Rain Again” by the Eurythmics……a blast from the past!

Pompeo is doing his part to pretend that a war is not wanted….

While continuing to be the public face of the US response to the Gulf of Oman tanker attacks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is maintaining that the US focus is diplomacy, and that “we don’t want war.”

Pompeo has been seen as one of the more hawkish voices in the administration on Iran, both before and after the tanker incidents. He echoes Trump’s position on opposing a war, but also continues to emphasizes that military options are also being considered.

Pompeo went on to say that “President Trump has done everything he can to avoid war.” He added that the US was prepared to take all actions “diplomatic and otherwise” to achieve their goals in the region.

(antiwar.com)

And yet a close personal friend to Pompeo and past candidate for either State or Defense, Tom Cotton has a different take on the situation…..

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) joined Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation to speak on the attacks of the two tankers last week in the Gulf of Oman. Cotton said, “These unprovoked attacks on commercial shipping warrant a retaliatory military strike.”

Brennan asked the Senator if he believes the President could attack Iran without getting authorization from congress first, to which Cotton replied, “Yes, Margaret. Going back to President Washington and all the way down to President Trump, the fastest way to get the fire and fury of the U.S. military unleashed on you is to interfere with the freedom of navigation on the open seas and in the air.”

Cotton referenced an inconclusive, grainy, black and white video released by U.S. Central Command last week as proof the Iranians were responsible for the attack, “Everybody can see with their own two eyes, those Iranian sailors going up to a ship and taking a mine off of it.”

The Senator repeated another unsubstantiated claim the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made, “they’ve increased their support on attacks on American troops by supporting a Taliban attack in Afghanistan.” The attack in question is a car bomb blast that occurred on May 31st, targeting a convoy of U.S. troops. The Taliban took responsibility immediately after the attack, and Pompeo offered no evidence that Iran was involved. The Taliban using car bombs against U.S. troops is nothing new.

(antiwar.com)

Now were have new pics of those “Iranians” removing that mine….to me it is just colorized pics that have already been presented…..I have a problem with the location of this “mine”……

Limpet mines float, and attach to the underside of a ship to explode, causing holes below the waterline. That all the holes were above that line, some of them substantially so, suggests these couldn’t have been limpet mines. The Japanese crew, aboard the Kokuka Courageous, claimed their ship was hit by a projectile, not a mine.

Now that brings me to my point…the media.

I have a problem with the MSM for they do nothing but force feed the governmental lies to the public who use to trust them to tell the truth……the media was a factor for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and now they are at it again…this time Iran…..

“Do U.S. reporters, anchors, and editors really want more Middle Eastern blood on their hands? If not, they need to fix their rather credulous and increasingly hawkish coverage of Iran—and fix it fast.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/14/think-us-media-wont-help-lead-nation-war-iran-based-flimsy-or-false-intelligence

My candidate of choice has made a statement that reflects the way I feel on this situation……

……worlds away from the Middle East, congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has been framing her presidential candidacy on avoiding this type of sabre rattling. While some of her better-known Democratic rivals have focused on healthcare or climate change as the number one concern, the army veteran has instead cited nuclear war and US regime-change policy as the number one threat to the the country she hopes to lead.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tulsi-gabbard-2020-democrat-iran-us-regime-change-war-oil-a8959586.html

Do Not believe the lies…..search for the answers to your questions….

Must We Stay In Syria?

Just a few short months ago our president stated that our troops would be leaving Syria because ISIS had been defeated…..first ISIS has not been defeated just given a bloody nose and second, the MIC did not give Trump permission to take troops out of Syria….but I wrote about it back then……https://lobotero.com/2019/01/21/then-there-is-syria-5/

Now that the MIC has gotten their way and US troops will remain in Syria to protect Israel what will be the hidden costs of such a decision?

President Donald Trump was right to want to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and should not have let his advisers overrule him. The rationales the administration gives for keeping U.S. forces in Syria are impossibly ambitious, and vehicles for escalation. Elements of the administration, starting with John Bolton, the national security adviser, seem eager to use U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq as bait for a war with Iran.

We have occasionally hoped that Congress might bestir itself to vote on the U.S. war in Syria, or even end it. Instead, its members mostly criticized the possibility of withdrawal, avoided any vote on the war, and now have sponsored an expert report setting out an extravagant set of missions for the small U.S. force remaining there.

Last December, when Trump suddenly announced the withdrawal of all 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria and declared ISIL militarily defeated, foreign policy pundits across the political spectrum were appalled. The nation’s major op-ed pages wailed. With a few exceptions, most of whom are running for president, the Senate overcame its partisan divide to condemn the withdrawal of troops. Trump’s own secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, and his special envoy to the “Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS,” Brett McGurk, resigned in protest over the decision.

https://warontherocks.com/2019/05/the-terrible-case-for-staying-in-syria/
 
This should be the lesson for lawmakers…..once the US starts a war it is incapable of ending it.
 
Just saying!

 

Troops Out Of Iraq?

AS an opponent of war I want our weary troops out of Iraq….but of course I am pretty much alone since the government, M-IC and the media will do whatever it takes to see that our troops remain…..

Do not get me wrong it there was a good reason for the troops to be there then I would reconsider my stand….but I do not see that good reason.

Besides the media and the M-IC would go batcrap crazy at the thought of our troops coming home…….does anyone remember 2008…Obama is president and troops were being pulled out…..and the M-IC turned to the media to help the GOP fight to keep the troops in country…..most of their stuff was lies….but I expect that from the GOP…..but I wrote about in 2008……https://lobotero.com/2008/06/15/iraq-may-ask-us-to-leave/

I know who care about something that was a mere blip on the geopolitical radar?

Well the Iraqis may be in the process of throwing the US out of the country……

Iraq has spent the better share of the last 16 years under US military occupation. Despite this, time and again US-Iraqi relations have come to be defined by US hostility toward neighboring Iran, and Iraq’s desire to not get mixed up in that.

So while Iraq’s parliament was already bristling under Pentagon talk of staying in Iraq, and Trump saying that the US was staying in Iraq to “keep an eye on Iran,” the recent escalation of US rhetoric about a war against Iran has sparked action within parliament.

It has been said for awhile that Iraq will be voting on a bill that would aim to expel all foreign troops from Iraqi soil, and singles out US troops in particular as needing to leave. The bill is endorsed by Iraq’s top two Shi’ite blocs, and is expected to pass fairly easily. Exact timing of the vote is unclear, but it is expected to be sooner rather than later.

What happens then is the real question. Iraq’s parliament is already being spun as “pro-Iran factions,” and it’s been a long time since US officials, Pentagon or otherwise, gave any indication that they thought staying in Iraq was up to the Iraqi government.

So while the Iraqi Prime Minister is warning the US that they can’t use Iraq to launch a war on Iran, the US is browbeating Iraq over its government-aligned Shi’ite militias, and doing everything they can to try to portray that Shi’ite-dominated Iraqi government as effectively in league with the Iranians, and subsequently a threat to US interests. No matter what happens, it seems certain US-Iraqi ties will suffer for it.

(antiwar.com)

Deja vu all over again!

How will the M-IC and media spin this to have it overturned?

If it happens there will be a massive attempt to change the narrative.

The Road To Middle East Peace

This could be seen as 70+ years of failures…..from the proposals of Count Folke Bernadotte in 1948 to the promises of peace from Donald Trump……the closest we came to an end was in 1978 Camp David Accords….and then we had an election that brought a warmonger to the White House and the downhill slide began and has only picked up speed in the years after.

We have been promised to hear a plan from Kushner, the leader of Trump’s ME peace team, for years….the promise is that we will finally hear this plan sometime this month.

Personally, I feel that this plan will be nothing more than a sideshow to help change the dialog of the day……

After two years of drum-rolling, Donald Trump’s “ultimate deal” for Israelis and Palestinians is about to enter what its architects claim is the pre-launch phase.

The US president has said the peace plan drawn up by his team – two former personal lawyers and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner – will be ready to unveil by the end of January.

Yet despite the anticipation surrounding Trump’s proposals for resolving one of the world’s most intractable conflicts, a more crucial plan for the region is already being implemented on the ground: an attempt to strengthen Israel’s hand while weakening that of the Palestinians.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/01/donald-trump-middle-east-peace-plan-israel-palestine

Sorry being a Jew does not necessarily qualify one to be the master of peace in the Middle East…..but that aside any plan (if one actually makes an appearance) will need Congress before anything…..

In recent days, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, has revealed certain key aspects of the long-touted White House Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that he and other senior administration officials say they will launch sometime after the April 9 elections in Israel. In normal times, these would be headlines. But America is currently so consumed with the Mueller investigation and the president’s declaration of a national emergency to fund his border wall that it is hard to find the bandwidth to discuss anything else.

The plan is said to be based on four principles—freedom, respect, security, and opportunity—with one key goal being “developing infrastructure” for “tremendous growth in … the West Bank and Gaza.”

The price tag for these investments, meanwhile, is reported to be in the tens of billions of dollars—a substantial sum, particularly for an administration that has slashed U.S. foreign assistance across the board and especially to the Palestinians. No doubt this is why Kushner and other senior administration officials are currently touring the Arab Gulf states: not just to “share … some of the details … especially on the economic vision” with leaders there, as Kushner described, but to ask them to foot most if not all of the bill.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/02/27/why-trumps-middle-east-peace-plan-needs-congress/
 
Keep in mind that the Trump machine has a long record of failures……
Many American presidents have blundered in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, but Donald Trump’s personal involvement in the region has been particularly disastrous. President Eisenhower introduced the CIA to the world of covert action, when he ordered the overthrow of the legitimate government of Iran in 1953. President Reagan endorsed a U.S. troop presence in Lebanon in 1982 in order to pull Israeli chestnuts out of the fire there due to their war crimes in Beirut, offering proof to the Arab nations of Washington’s one-sided support for Israel. President George H.W. Bush went ahead with Desert Storm in 1991 although Soviet President Gorbachev had gained a commitment from Saddam Hussein to withdraw his forces from Kuwait. Worst of all, President George W. Bush used phony intelligence to justify an invasion of Iraq in 2003 that has created sixteen years of disarray throughout the region.
 
The roll out (if there is one) will be massive and taunted as “peace in our time” sort of thing…..I predict it will be yet another failed attempt at peace for this region.
 
The only peace plan is one the both sides keep their dignity and respect for the opponent….I do not see that happening anytime soon…..
 

Those Chemical Attacks

Everything that has happened in Syria in the last decade is the rest of those dastardly chemical attacks….the US build up and the US attacks to punish this dastardly affront to civilization….the attacks of which I wrote in 2018……https://lobotero.com/2018/05/02/syria-saga-continues/

Now a MIT rocket scientist writes about those attacks….

 “The evidence is overwhelming that the gas attacks were staged,” Award-winning scientist and MIT professor emeritus Theodore Postol told The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté in a newly published interview.

The interview with the noted MIT rocket scientist comes after Fox’s Tucker Carlson featured rare mainstream coverage of the bombshell leaked OPCW report on his show Thursday night.

The “smoking gun” memo refutes key events surrounding the April 2018 alleged chemical gas attack in Douma, Syria – which resulted at the time in massive US and allied airstrikes on Damascus, including the launch of over one hundred Tomahawk cruise missiles.

As we summarized previously of the leaked chemical weapons engineer report from the world’s chief international chemical weapons watchdog group:

The document, whose authenticity the OPCW has confirmed, contends that the official story which was used to justify an air strike by the US, UK and France about poison gas being dropped on civilians from Syrian government helicopters is scientifically implausible, saying “In summary, observations at the scene of the two locations, together with subsequent analysis, suggest that there is a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being delivered from aircraft.” 

Watch the interview below:

MIT Rocket Scientist: Leaked Document Shows Syrian Chemical Attacks Were Staged

I bring up this history because they are at it again……this from 23May19……https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/22/us-accuses-syria-of-more-chemical-attacks-just-as-chemical-weapons-narrative-crumbles/

Most people are not aware of just how involved the MSM is in the selling of military action……it is the best propaganda tool the government has at its disposal.

The MSM is not a neutral purveyor of the news of the day……it is nothing more than propaganda on a daily basis to condition the American public to accept whatever issue the government feels is important.

So you want example…..okay…Israel!  Military involvement! Pick an issue…any issue…..if it is a major story of the day then it is spun to get the reaction that is wanted……and the American people walk along as if in a trance and accept whatever they, MSM, is spinning.