At least one Tomahawk could've aimed at Syria runway ya' think?

Tomahawk Cruise Missle made by Raytheon

It's impossible to understand how a volley of expensive Tomahawk missles were directed to destroy air base hangers without also destroying the runways where President Assad launched bombing attacks against his own people.

What was the point of the Syria attack? Morover, what now?

Although I know virtually nothing about Tomahawk missles, the fact is, they are capable of hitting airport runways.  Here's the descritpion of the sophisticated capabilities of the Ratheon Tomahawk.  

Modern, Mature, Powerful- Today's Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile can circle for hours, shift course instantly on command and beam a picture of its target to controllers halfway around the world before striking with pinpoint accuracy.

Tomahawks can be launched from a ship or submarine and can fly into heavily defended airspace more than 1,000 miles away to conduct precise strikes on high-value targets with minimal collateral damage. Launching the weapon from such a long distance helps to keep sailors out of harm's way.

The Tomahawk is a highly accurate, GPS enabled precision weapon that has been used over 2,000 times in combat, and flight tested more than 500 times.

During the NATO-led effort against the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, Tomahawk played an instrumental role in the operation. One submarine fired more than 90 missiles at a variety of targets, and the USS Barry fired the 2,000th Tomahawk in combat.

As the battlespace and needs of the warfighter evolve, Raytheon is doing what it has always done: supporting the military with the world's most advanced cruise missile – Tomahawk.

MaineWriter- Although the Tomahawk is obviously a deadly weapon, it's only as effective as the direction programmed into its delivery. Donald Trump wasted the expensive military weapons, while the attack accomplished nothing. Even worse, the useless Syrian attack has now boxed the USA response for future operations.  In as much as those Syrian air fields are still operational, the evil Assad regime can use the runways to launch air strikes in defense of any future US military operations in the area. It's unbelievable incompetence. 

Blaming the wrong people- Donald Trump is where the buck stops

Syria- Trump's moment of terrible truth- where the buck stops.
Wake up Donald Trump! You are now in charge. No more grandstanding, beer hall rallies or screaming rhetorical slogans. In fact, you are where the buck stops.

"The buck stops here" was a phrase popularized by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who kept a sign, with that phrase, on his desk in the White House Oval Office. 

It's become proverbial, in that the phrase means the President makes the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for decisions made and directed, by him.

Certainly, when UN Ambassador Nikki Haley raised the pictures of Syrian children struggling to breath because they were attacked by nerve gas, she raised the "red line" expectations bar very high for Donald Trump and his administration. Certainly, it was her clarion call to respond! Of course, in the past Donald Trump has opposed US interventions in Syria, just because he was opposed to everything, when he was campaigning to win the election regardless of the consequences.  Now, of course, Donald Trump must govern and Ambassador Nikki Haley has called him to act- by showing the world the consequences of inaction.

Syria never disposed of toxic chemical weapons, as Russia said they would do. Proof of it was in the renewed nerve gas attacks.

As a result, Donald Trump is being tested to react to the Assad regime's heinous war crimes, attacking his own Syrian citizens with nerve gas.  He must be removed from power - tried for war crimes and publicly executed.  Taking out Assad with a drone or missile isn't enough. In fact, the world must witness justice. 

In fact, Assad must suffer, by forcing him to confront the genocide he inflicted on his own people and be brought to justice.

This is the red line for Donald Trump.  He must respond. It's like a deadly roulette game. If his reaction fails, his regime will never recover (that's one bet).  On the other hand, if Assad is captured or killed, the consequences of that outcome are yet to be determined (an other bet).  And the third option?  Well, if Assad is removed from power (and he certainly will be) the power struggle for control of Syria will be between Russia and the USA.  In other words, all three roulette options are loaded with risks. Nevertheless, the risk of doing nothing will be equated with weakness and failure.

So, Donald Trump - guess what?  "The Buck Stops With You".

No more "blame the other person", as you're so apt to do.  

Your failed Seal Team 6 Yemen raid was a disaster, yet you blamed it on President Obama, because it flopped.  If Seal Team 6 in Yemen had succeeded, and the Muslim women had never taken up arms on the rooftops to fight the incoming assault, then the Trump horns would've touted success.  But Yemen failed.

Syria cannot be blamed or credited with anyone but Donald Trump.

Faites vos jeux 

Aleppo and Cambodia

Frankly, when my husband and I visited Cambodia in 2011, we were both surprised when our guide explained the reason the evil Khmer Rouge gained such a stranglehold on the nation during their reign of terror, known as the "Killing Fields". She told us the massive slaughters of Cambodians by their own people, led by a cruel dictator named Po Pot (1925-1998), happened because the United States left Vietnam in chaos and the Khmer Rouge filled the void in Cambodia. This logic was beyond my understanding. Weren't the Cambodia people victimized by the leader Po Pot and his followers? I didn't think the Americans had much, if anything, to do with his murderous campaign.  

Po Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge (1925-1998)

Well, now CNN is reporting that the lack of US involvement in Syria has, likewise, led to a leadership vacuum in the Middle East and this resulted in the tragic fall of Aleppo.  

When the US steps back, terrible actors fill the void
Barack Obama became president vowing to extricate the United States from the Middle East. He tried to stay out of Syria and even sounded proud of it. His failure to act even after warning of a "red line" if Assad used chemical weapons -- which Assad has continued to do -- sent a signal to other powers that the field was open. The vacuum created by the US was quickly filled by Russia, Iran and Arab governments. Now, we see not only the calamity of Aleppo, but hundreds of thousands killed, millions of refugees in Europe, the rise of the extreme anti-immigrant right and the empowering of Russia and Iran. Obama's policy did not just fail. It allowed this worst-case scenario to materialize.

Huh? Well, these two logic scenarios just don't make any sense. Obviously, I'm not an international scholar, but in both tragedies, the carnage was caused by the nation's governments turning on its own people. Po Pot was Cambodian- he murdered millions of Cambodians. Similarly, President Assad, the evil leader of Syria, is murdering millions of his nation's citizens.

In both tragedies, the risk of intervening in Cambodia or, decades later, in  Syria, would have had the same consequences. In other words, to prevent both massacres, the weird logic called for Americans to be interventionists. When Cambodian people became victims of Po Pot, they had the power, by sheer numbers, to destroy the evil man. Eventually, the Vietnamese army intervened in Cambodia to end the carnage, but only one person was ever tried and executed for the Khmer Rouge terror. Unbelievably, even Po Pot died in a hospital, albeit under somewhat mysterious circumstances.  

In Syria, one man is responsible for the genocide of millions of his own people. Although Assad is propped up by Russian President Putin, the fact is, the 12.5 million displaced Syrians who are victims of this alliance had the capacity to overtake the power base in the capital, in Damascus.

Of course, I sincerely regret sounding like my intention is to somehow blame the innocent victims who were murdered by Po Pot in Cambodia and by Assad in Syria. That is certainly not the purpose of this blog. Rather, I'm failing to understand a logic whereby, both the guide who spoke to us in Cambodia and now the CNN pundit, are in agreement about how lack of American involvement contributed to two international genocides. 

Perhaps I'm conjuring up an image of waves of humans creating an avalanche of unified resistance to evil leaders, regardless of how many get massacred in the process. Yet, in both countries, in my opinion, the lack of populist opposition has caused exactly the same outcomes.

Moreover, potential American involvement in Cambodia post the end of the Vietnam War (or, as the Vietnamese call it "the War of American Aggression") would have contributed to even more casualties. In Syria, an American intervention would have involved our nation's military and probably even roused more support for terrorism from ISIS and other radical religious zealots.  

Therefore, I disagree with the CNN report about the vacuum created by lack of American involvement in Syria contributing to the fall of Aleppo.  

These are the facts: President Assad is responsible for the cruel destruction of his own, once beautiful, Syrian nation. In Cambodia, it was Po Pot who murdered his own people during the reign of the Khmer Rouge during the "Killing Fields". Two individual and mortal men who were both motivated by evil to destroy their own people.  Period.

In my logic, Americans had little, if anything, to do with either one.

Tragedy in Aleppo Syria an abandoned civilization

Tweet from "The White Helmets" @SyriaCivilDef :
"In this moment we serve as a reminder that humanity will always prevail and defy dictatorship. We will not kneel. #saveAleppo" 

Very powerful visual message about "The White Helments" obviously ignored by the Nobel Committee

(FYI: "The White Helmets" are 2,900 volunteer search and rescue workers from local Syrian communities who risk their lives to save others and bring hope. 70,280+ lives saved)

Regardless of what side of the international Syrian disaster we happen to find ourselves on, the people of Syria are now victims of international abandonment. All of us who have watched this tragic war waged by Evil President Assad against his own people are guilty of witnessing genocide. Worse, doing nothing about it.

The Powerless People of Aleppo Are Tweeting for Help!

Report from the Wired blog: “SaveAleppo,” THE HASHTAG READS , but with every anguished tweet today its message seems more futile.

Sadly, the Twitter appeals come from civilians in the last rebel-held neighborhoods of Syria’s besieged city of Aleppo, and from those hoping in vain to help them from afar, while Assad's government forces advance closer. 

The United Nations estimates that 82 people were killed yesterday, and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s army seems hours away from capturing the eastern side of the city that had eluded conquest for the past four-and-a-half years. In photos and videos geotagged Aleppo, bodies are strewn in the street and women beg for help. The White Helmets, a volunteer group that has for years worked to protect Aleppo’s civilians and clear the dead after attacks, has abandoned hope.

Since 2011, Syrians have taken to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to beseech the West for support—both humanitarian aid and political pressure to end the civil war. 

Nevertheless, the US has refused to get heavily involved in the fighting between anti-government rebels and Russian-backed Syrian government forces. Support the Obama administration has offered to rebel factions has led some in the international community to worry that Syria’s civil war would become a proxy war between Russia and the US. 

The incoming Trump administration is far more open to the Russian position on Syria, and since August, Assad and the Russian forces supporting him have made considerable military gains. In the past 48 hours, they have pushed further into the rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

Now, in what will likely be the final hours of the fight, they tweet not because it might help, but because they can do little else. Reduced to two square kilometers in the city, the rebel area of Aleppo lacks any route of escape except into the hands of the Assad regime. Some women reportedly chose suicide yesterday rather than face capture by the government. Others, crouched in bombed-out hallways amid the rubble of their former city, turn to the tiny devices in their hands to share with the world their horror, fear, anguish, rage.

Journalist Bilal Kareem spoke in a video Monday night as blasts rang all around him. “We may not be able to send any more messages as regime forces push closer and closer,” he said.

In fact, The New York Times reported that civilians trying to flee were being shot. There is no way out of eastern Aleppo. There is no water. No food. But there is cellular service even as the bombs fall. Even as the children are blown to bits. And that’s because very close by, just across the city, life continues as normal. In the government-controlled western part of Aleppo 1.4 million people drive to work and school every day. The cellular towers broadcast connection across the front lines, ignorant of the boundaries of man and war, reaching across to those who now wish only to be heard.

“To everyone who can hear me, we are here exposed to a genocide in the besieged city of Aleppo,” activist Lina Shamy said in a video Monday night. “This might be my last video. More than 50,000 people who rebelled against the dictator Bashar al-Assad are threatened with field executions or dying under bombings.”

Still others refuse to give up hope. On Tuesday morning, Kareem said, “The good news is that it’s raining, and that means the planes can’t fly the way they want to and be able to see and then bomb us.” 

Around 12:30 ET on Tuesday, Agence France Press reported that Turkey was spearheading negotiations with the Russian and Assad forces in Aleppo to arrange for the remaining civilians to get safe passage out of the city.

Tweet response from "Minca" @minca40218520:

I'm so sorry the world has failed you #Aleppo
12:03 PM - 13 Dec 2016

Pope Francis pleads for desperate refugees

Refugees desperately fleeing Syrian carnage are causing chaos in Europe, while their plight worsens and world leaders wring their collective hands about how to solve the crises. Warmer water temperature will raise the refugee numbers. 

It's possible a human tsunami of refugees are likely to invade the shores of Europe, as spring and summer improve Aegean Sea water temperatures, making crossing from Greece to Turkey somewhat less risky. It seems to me, these refugees have nothing to loose by creating a proverbial flotilla of boats, loaded with desperate people, who are seeking political asylum from Syrian war, tyranny and oppression. Yet, I also believe the refugees have little to loose by organizing a mass migration back to their Syrian homeland. Nevertheless, they are now committed to migrate from Greece and to move north to Europe.

Unfortunately, the welcome gates in Europe are now closing to the refugees. Although their plight is increasingly desperate, the truth is, the root cause of their crises is the Syrian President Assad. One man is the root cause of this carnage because he refuses to help his own nation and people.  In fact, Assad is guilty of genocide against his own Syrian people.  He will eventually be tried and convicted or war crimes, living or dead.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis in the Vatican is calling on the world to help.  Tragically, nothing appears to be happening. 

Yet, it's Easter, a season of hope and Pope Francis is trying again:

Pope's message condemns failure to help migrants:

Pope Francis condemned those who fail to help migrants, during his traditional Easter speech in Rome.

The Pope said migrants often met "rejection from those who could offer them welcome and assistance".

He also condemned terrorism as "a blind and brutal violence" that should be fought with "weapons of love".

The Pope was delivering his "urbi et orbi" (To the city and the world) message to thousands amid tight security in St Peter's Square.

Pope Francis prays for the Syrian migrants and refugees

Syrian prayer:
A Prayer For The People Of SyriaAlmighty eternal God, source of all compassion,
the promise of your mercy and saving help fills our hearts with hope.
Hear the cries of the people of Syria;
bring healing to those suffering from the violence,
and comfort to those mourning the dead.
Empower and encourage Syria’s neighbors
in their care and welcome for refugees.
Convert the hearts of those who have taken up arms,
and strengthen the resolve of those committed to peace.

O God of hope and Father of mercy,
your Holy Spirit inspires us to look beyond ourselves and our own needs.
Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence
and to seek reconciliation with enemies.
Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria, and fill us with hope for a future of peace built on justice for all.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace and Light of the World, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.  Amen.

The Pope said: "The Easter message of the risen Christ... invites us not to forget those men and women seeking a better future, an ever more numerous throng of migrants and refugees... fleeing from war, hunger, poverty and social injustice.  

Although the Pope's message is essential to alert the world to the refugee genocide, the fact is, the same message must also include a message to Syrian President Assad.  

Indeed, Assad  must be told that he will be held accountable for his war crimes, dead or alive.

Horror of the Syrian refugees- a flashback from the London Blitz

At Christmas, the world is reminded about brilliant angels at the scene of the Nativity in Bethlehem, reported 2000 years ago. In the Bible account, the angles sang about peace on earth and goodwill toward all mankind, when Jesus Christ was born.  Luke Chapter 2 verse 14, in the New Testament, described the glorious scene.

Angels in Bethlehem are reported to have sung of Peace and Goodwill to all....Luke 2:14

Yet, for millions of victims of war and refugees who live in fear, this joyous season seems void of hope. Just today, another 18 refugees were reported to have drowned off the coast of Turkey in the Aegean Sea, while trying to escape war and reach Europe.

What's it like to live in a state of constant fear of loosing your life as a result of war? A first person article by Linda Le Vine was published in the Rotary International January 2016 edition, titled "Survive the London Blitz". This article provides a timely reminder about how many innocent lives are impacted by war, leaving emotional scars to last generations. While reading, think about how the Syrian refugees feel while they're suffering the loss of their homes and risking death to escape Middle East revolution and carnage.

Linda Le Vine:  Rotary Club of Westlake Village, California: Survive the London Blitz

When Le Vine was a child, she lived with her mother in an apartment near the center of London, during World War II.

During World War II, she said her neighborhood was constantly under assault by the German Luftwaffe.  She writes:

Most nights and many days, monstrous bombs, sometimes from hundreds of bombers at a time, attempted to destroy our city and demoralize or murder its citizens. This nearly unceasing attack on our civilian population completely terrorized us and left lasting scars. None of us were certain we would survive. We lived in constant fear that Germany would win this horrific war and our country would be brutally occupied.

England’s capital at the time was mainly inhabited by women, children, and elderly men. Most of the younger men, including my father, were in the British armed forces. One evening when I was six, after we had eaten our usual rations of a sausage, cabbage, and a boiled potato, my mother tucked me into bed, forgetting to close the blackout curtains. She kissed me goodnight and went to visit with neighbors in an upstairs apartment.

A short time later, the piercing shriek of an air raid warning jolted me awake. Within seconds, thousands of tons of exploding bombs shattered almost every window in our apartment. Because the curtains weren’t drawn, broken glass and shrapnel flew into my room, grazing my arms and legs. Then the walls imploded, entombing me under the mangled wreckage of what had been my bedroom. I was trapped and unable to move.

The raid seemed endless. One plane after another dropped its sinister cargo. I was more scared than I’d ever been in my young life. Between bombing runs, I could hear the frantic cries of my neighbors.

Eventually, my mother found her way to my burial site. She screamed hysterically as she tried to reach me under the pile of rubble. She couldn’t do it alone, and I was too little and too trapped to move. It required the help of several neighbors to pull me to safety.

When I was finally free, my mother kissed me all over, wetting my face with her tears. She wiped a little blood from my arms and legs but decided my wounds were superficial and could be attended to later. As the bombing continued, we grabbed our gas masks and my doll and raced to the bomb shelter.

I hated that shelter: a small, crowded, putrid hole in the ground. Rats often burrowed through the crumbling brick walls and hid within the flimsy bedding that gave us only a little relief from the cold. Rodent droppings covered the filthy floor. Many people became ill with hepatitis A because our food and water were often contaminated, and it was not uncommon to see skin and eyes yellowed by the disease. In one particularly horrific incident, a two-year-old boy was bitten by a large black rat. The child was taken to a hospital, howling in pain.

That night, we couldn’t sleep. The cries of babies crammed together on dirty cots along the walls echoed throughout the night. I huddled in a corner, fearing that the shelter would be destroyed and that I would again be buried alive.

The next morning, my mother and I joined the hordes of other dazed and injured refugees who were suddenly homeless, wandering the streets of London. We shouted with rage at our enemies when we saw the ugly black craters that had once been the homes of our neighbors. It was impossible to believe that so much evil existed in the world and that people of another country would want to slaughter us like we were simply cockroaches to be extinguished. Fires still smoldered from the previous night, and acrid smoke filled our nostrils. The dead and injured were scattered everywhere. Rescue workers solemnly unearthed body parts in an attempt to recover victims for proper burial. My mother removed her apron and placed it over my head so that I wouldn’t see the charred, lifeless bodies.

The government arranged our evacuation to a pretty town outside London. Two elderly sisters received money from the war authorities to take us in. After several months, the sisters discovered that our religion was different from theirs and demanded that we leave immediately. Having no money, my mother had no choice but to move us back to London to stay with relatives. Their apartment, crowded and small, was several miles away from our previous one. It was, however, still within the target range of the enemy’s bombs.

I enrolled in a new school. A few weeks after school began, I became best friends with a lovely blond girl who kindly welcomed me into her “girlfriends group.” Later that year, she and her family were killed during an aerial attack at her home. I was devastated. At school, our teacher solemnly told the class to put our heads down on our desks to pray for her. We lowered our heads, folded our hands, and quietly wept.

One morning during recess, our games were halted by the shrieking siren of an air raid warning. Within seconds, we heard the roar of massive groups of planes approaching. Thunderous blasts rolled through the neighborhood as incendiary bombs exploded nearby. The air filled with the bright orange of explosives and the choking smoke from burning buildings. I closed my eyes to erase the unbearable reality of it. Most of the students cried or screamed, while others held their fear deep inside as the teachers led us to the basement shelter. My teacher, Mrs. Clark, looked to the skies and shouted at the butchery and wickedness of it all.

After that, it was almost impossible to keep our minds on our studies. How to survive the next onslaught dominated our thoughts.

Toward the end of the war, my kind and gentle grandmother Esther was cooking dinner in her tiny apartment in East London when a buzz bomb speeding over 300 miles an hour incinerated her neighborhood. For a long time after she was killed, I would lie in bed at night and imagine the panic she must have felt when she heard the sickening buzzing sound of Hitler’s latest weapon. She knew, as we all did, that when the buzz bomb became silent, it was falling to earth to erase the lives of all of those within its path.

I couldn’t believe Grandma Esther and I would no longer laugh together or share fish and chips (with extra vinegar) in her cozy kitchen. I feared I would never again smell the golden daffodils she nurtured in small window boxes around her apartment, or hear the beautiful symphony music she loved to listen to on her radio.

During the night, I slept cocooned within my mother’s comforting arms, afraid that she would die as so many other mothers had and that I would be alone in the world. I became obsessed with the thought of losing her as I’d lost my grandmother.

Even after these many years, memories of the bombings haunt my dreams. Often at night, when I hear friendly airplanes flying over my home in California, I shudder with long-ago memories of other planes.

Violence is still a daily occurrence for many children. The wars are different, but the cruelties that are inflicted upon innocent children remain the same. Hardly a day goes by without the media showing us the confused and terrified faces of children who are the victims of war. These images of suffering play out like a recording without end. When I look into the eyes of these children, I automatically think back to the atrocities that I experienced in my youth.

How can we stop subjecting generations of children to death and destruction, to the loss of home and family? These experiences will haunt them forever. To paraphrase Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel, “War will only cease when we love our children more than we hate our enemies.”

Now, fast forward 70 years and think about the victims of the Syrian and Middle Eastern carnage going on today, resulting from President Bashar al-Assad's tyranny (supported by Russia). 

In fact, millions of people have been displaced as a result of Assad's genocide. Thousands have died trying to escape. Tragically, another 18 people, including children, were reported drowned today, on Christmas Eve, when their boat capsized off the Turkey coast.  It's impossible to understand how this genocide can continue. Nevertheless, even if peace and goodwill somehow miraculously returned to the Middle East, the fact is, the social and political turmoil caused by the mass migration of people who are living in constant fear will take many generations to overcome. 

It's time for the world to demand the surrender of President Assad and to set up a multi-national provisional government to help restore peace in Syria and to stabilize the Middle East. Otherwise, it's difficult to imagine the enormous consequences caused by millions of people living in fear of carnage 

The Rotarian Action Group for Peace provides resources for Rotary members and clubs to work together for tolerance and understanding. Learn more at www.rotarianactiongroupforpeace.org.

Metrojet tragedy raises ISIS danger zone

It's a given that evil ISIS - the "Islamic State" (which is no state except a "state of fear") has intentions of taking over the world for particularly henious reasons. Taking airliners out of the sky is the nefarious intentioned group's most effective terrorism weapon.

  Evil ISIS is expanding it's barbaric danger zone

Now, Russia has received the ultimate ISIS danger warning with the probable bomb attack on a passenger airliner flying over the Egyptian Sinai . Yahoo News reports, "No matter what caused the fatal crash of a Russian airliner in Egypt, the answer will almost certainly hit Russia hard."

Although Russia's President Putin seems nonplused by the downing of the innocent Malaysian jet shot down over the Ukraine, the destruction of the Metrojet lands right on Putin's lap.

Russians may respond to the probable airliner attack by calling for a check on Vladimir Putin's unmitigated leadership and a challenge to his Syrian military intervention. Obviously, evil ISIS made the effort to attack the Russian Metrojet because they had the chance to sabbotatge in retaliation for the intervention in Syria.

In fact, the Russian reponse in Syria is doing more to protect the dictator President Assad than to remove evil ISIS. As a matter of fact, Putin would love to be the leader who destroyed ISIS in Syria but the end result would be an expansion of Russia's influence in the Middle East. 

Metrojet's tragic end is a warning from evil ISIS to the entire world. This terrorism network is clearly not impacted by the carnage the barbaric followers create.  They are immune to intellectual enlightenment, humanitarian values or diplomatic negotiations. Their motivation is fueled by raising the bar on terrorism. By bringing down the Metrojet with an on board explosive device, as evil ISIS claims to have done, they have proven how their network of followers are lurking nearly anywhere and perhaps everywhere. 

Consequently, the Metrojet disaster has proven on thing to the world. That is, current strategies to destroy the evil ISIS movement and the terrorism momentum are just not working.

In past blogs, I stated my uninformed instincts to call for destroying the evil ISIS leadership. Well, that has happened.  Airsrikes and drone attacks have removed many ISIS leaders. Nevertheless, the poisinious snake, obviously, has several rengenerative heads. 

Additonally, attempts have been made to destroy the revenue evil ISIS obtained from selling oil. Now, evil ISIS, instead, is illegally retailing valuable ancient cultural treasures.  

Metrojet is a tragic sea turn on ISIS offensive strategies.  

Clearly, nothing is stopping these barbarians from achieving their horrifically ambitious goals to terrorize the world.  

Universal and collective strategies haven't penetrated the root cause of the evil ISIS growth and its ability to attract suicidal followers.  

As a result, the next level of strategies must involve something the world has been hesitant to address or to discredit.  

There's an overt zealous philosophical attraction to ISIS. Therefore, to dismantle the terrorism network will involve vilification of its destructive motivation. In other words, the innocents of the world must somehow motivate the Muslims of the world to remove evil ISIS off the face of the earth. 

Vladimir Putin evaluates risks benefits of Syrian intervention

Interesting development with Russia's leader (czar) Vladimir Putin now directing air strkes to intervene in war town Syria.

Official: Russia conducts first airstrike in Syria - reports CNN

Russia has conducted its first airstrike in Syria, near the city of Homs, a senior U.S. official told CNN Wednesday . U.S. missions are continuing as normal, reports CNN. The upper house of the Russian parliament has given President Vladimir Putin approval to use the Russian air force in Syria, according to state media.

Russia's President and self appointed Czar Vladimir Putin

In my uninformed position, Russia's president has decided the deteriorating Syrian situation has put the evil President Assad's leadership at risk. Obviously, Putin doesn't want to be put on trial by an international court for the support of wars crimes against humanity, after Syria's President is hanged for murdering his own people and driving half of the nation's population into refugee camps.

Syria's evil President Assad - half of his nation's population is now living in refugee camps

If the outcome of Russia's interventions are to reduce the evil ISIS (self declared Islamic State) growth and, in so doing, eliminate Assad, then his strategy will put him back on the international stage as a "hero come lately". In fact, it's rather brilliant international politics for Putin to finally intervene on behalf of blocking any more carnage in the Middle East related to ISIS and the Syrian refugee humanitarian disaster.

Isn't it ironic to see President Putin doing evil to his equally "evil" colleagues. "Evil is as evil does" or "it takes one to know one" come to mind when trying to explain how it is President Putin has finally acted like the "clean up hitter" in a baseball game. In fact, Putin may well hit a proverbial grand slam.  He'll allow air strikes into Syria to take out ISIS training in Assad's nation.  In my opinion, Putin will eventually remove President Assad for incompetent leadership and, probably, even broker a Middle East peace accord. Then, if he can only fix his Russian economy, he could finally bring Russia into the 21st century as a real, not in name only, world leader. Nevertheless, as a trained KGB operative, we will rue the day when Putin takes the spotlight on the world's center stage.

What Putin knows about evil ISIS and how will he help to destroy them?

Although the French government announced the destruction of an evil ISIS training camp in Syria, the intelligence for this successful air attack had to have been received from highly reliable sources. I suggest this air strike was given a path to success because Russia was fully complicit in allowing it to happen. In other words, Russia's President Putin, obviously, allowed evil ISIS to conduct training in Syria, but then, he decided to destroy it.  

France did the job.

In fact, Putin admitted in an excellent 60 Minutes interview, with Charlie Rose, that his government knows everything about what's going on in the Ukraine because of his network of informants. Well, in my opinion, Putin's "network" of informants extends beyond the Ukraine. It's evident Russia knows all about what's going on in Syria, as well as in the Ukraine and other countries, too.  

It's difficult to believe this successful ISIS destruction would've happened without Russia's knowledge and, supposedly, support.

PARIS — Six French jet fighters targeted and destroyed an Islamic State training camp in eastern Syria, President Francois Hollande said Sunday, making good on a promise to go after the group that the president has said is planning attacks against several countries, including France.

The airstrikes were the first in Syria by France as it expands its mission against IS.

“The camp was totally destroyed,” Hollande said Sunday after arriving at the United Nations, before the start of a major development summit and the U.N. General Assembly bringing together world leaders.

“We’re sure there were no casualties” among civilians, he added.

The French president’s office announced the strikes, without details, in a statement hours earlier.

“Our nation will strike each time our national security is at stake,” the statement said.

Hollande told reporters the strikes on the training camp, and others to come, were aimed at “protecting our territory, cutting short terrorist actions, acting in legitimate defense.”

Hollande said more strikes “could take place in the coming weeks if necessary.” The targets were identified in earlier French reconnaissance flights and with information provided by the U.S.-led coalition.

JACQUES BRINON/AP
French President Francois Hollande ordered an airstrike against Islamic State militants Sunday morning as national defense. (What nation or team of informants led to this specific strike?)

France has carried out 215 airstrikes against ISIS extremists in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led coalition since last year, the Defense Ministry said earlier this month. 

But it previously held back on engaging in Syria, citing concern over playing into Assad’s hand and the need for such action to be covered by international law. (Putin has no respect for international law.)

Officials now evoke “legitimate defense” as spelled out in the U.N. Charter to support strikes in Syria.

France has already been attacked by extremists claiming ties to ISIS. Hollande, who has ruled out sending ground troops into Syria, has cited “proof” of plans for attacks on France and the growing danger to Syrian civilians, with a large chunk of the population fleeing in a massive exodus.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France was going after ISIS “sanctuaries where those who want to hit France are trained.”

The goal of the strikes is to “slow, break, stop if possible the penetration of Daesh,” Gen. Vincent Desportes said on the iTele TV station, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

During the Charlie Rose interview, Vladimir Putin used charm to try to disarm the questions he didn't particularly like, but it didn't work. Although Putin spoke knowledgeably during the interview, he also didn't tell us anything we don't already know. 

To end, Putin knows a lot about what's going on in Syria with President Assad and evil ISIS. When Putin decides it's time for Assad to go, the evil Syrian dictator will be gone. Assad, who's disastrous leadership has been responsible for the evacuation of half of his nation's population, will eventually wind up with a mysterious illness, or some other unforeseen mishap.

When Putin appeared on 60 Minutes, he was showing the world that he is in charge of what's going on in Syria. If America wants ISIS destroyed, then Putin is likely the evil dictator to do the job by calling on his network of intelligence.  

Quite likely, it's not coincidental to have Putin appear on 60 Minutes, the day before his scheduled speech at the United Nations in New York City, on Monday September 28, while France announced the destruction of an ISIS training camp in Syria.  

Syria - boots on the ground directed by Commander in Chief

"We have warned [Syria's President Bashar al-Assad's] regime not to interfere with our ongoing efforts against [IS] inside of Syria," said National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan.

(So, where's Fox News on this story? ....Absent.)

Abu Sayyaf, a high level evil-ISIS leader, is dead. He was killed by US Special forces.
Although this Special Operations assassination in Syria appears to be a success, it is proof of the obvious. Indeed, American troops are "boots on the ground" in Syria and most probably elsewhere, too.


It's curious, but US media has not developed this story. 

Here's the BBC report:

Islamic State crisis: US special forces in Syria raid

The US says its special forces have killed a senior Islamic State (IS) member and captured his wife in a rare ground raid in eastern Syria.

Abu Sayyaf helped direct oil, gas and financial operations for IS, as well as holding a military role, said a US Department of Defense statement.

It said forces tried to capture him, but he was killed after engaging them.

It is the first time the US is known to have carried out a ground operation to attack IS within Syria.

The operation was authorised by President Barack Obama and was carried out by forces based in Iraq.

US officials said Abu Sayyaf was Tunisian, with one official telling CNN he was the chief financial officer "of all of [IS]" and that the US had seized "reams of data on how ISIS operates, communicates and earns its money".

On Arabic social media, however, Abu Sayyaf was not being spoken of as a known public figure.

Oil and gas have been an important source of revenue for IS, which gained swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq last year.

On Saturday, the group took control of the northern part of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, which it has been advancing on for three days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights - a UK-based network that uses activists within Syria.

In other developments
More civilians were killed in Syrian government air raids in Idlib province, the Observatory reported.

Turkey said it had shot down a Syrian helicopter after it crossed into Turkish airspace, though Syrian state media indicated that the aircraft was a drone.

The US said the operation in Syria was conducted "with the full consent of Iraqi authorities", though it did not inform the Syrian government in advance.

"We have warned [President Bashar al-Assad's] regime not to interfere with our ongoing efforts against [IS] inside of Syria," said National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan, adding that "the Assad regime is not and cannot be a partner in the fight" against (evil) IS.

(Julie's note:  This raid has to have been as dangerous as the "No Easy Day" reported raid to kill the now dead Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan!)

Evil rampage in Peshawar Pakistan to demoralize entire nation and innocents suffer

Evil Taliban: We Slaughtered 100+ Kids Because Their Parents Helped America. Militants attacked an army-run school in Peshawar claiming the massacre of children is retaliation for U.S.-backed efforts to crush a group that's helped protect Al Qaeda. I suspect this diabolical slaughter is also retaliation against the effectiveness of US led drone strikes against Al Qaeda conducted throughout Pakistan and other places.  

Obviously, Pakistan has been completely ineffective dealing with security in their own nation. Theirs is a failed nation where terrorism grows like germs on a human carcass.

It's a stomach turning sequence of horrors. An evil rampage in Peshawar, Pakistan proves beyond any doubt that the Islamic terrorists must be annhilated soon. Otherwise, Al Qaeda and other radical spin off groups will execute their unbridled heinous slaughters of innocents, without any consideration for the toll their killing takes on civilization. Eventually, unless these attackers are annihilated, they'll continue to build their evil critical mass, like an astrological black hole sucks in energy, until they consume all of us, regardless of where we are.

What else are these disgusting evil doers capable of doing?  

When Islamic Taliban radicals consume innocent children to retaliate against the Pakistan military, what else is left in the evil pot they piss in, as they rampage their gruesome intentions to destroy humanity?

Some Americans have a false sense of protection from this kind of inhumanity. They may feel like our natioal borders protect us from this kind of inhumanity. Those are naive beliefs. We must never forget September 11, 2001, because it can and likely will happen again, in some other, unknown form. That's the reason the Islamic extremists must be annihilated.

Undoubtedly. the victims of terrorism have the most at stake for destroying the perpetrators of the inhuman evil. This violent evil is infecting Islamic nations faster than the Ebola virus is killing innocents in Western Africa. Surely, those who hate terrorists and the horrendous actions they inspire must outnumber those who fall into their evil extremist vortex?  For example, millions of people living in refugee camps in Syria must outnumber those who are protecting evil President Assad in his Damascus, Syrian palace? Certainly, the numbers of innocent people who live in Pakistan outnumber the terrorists. Nevertheless, the extremists are ravaging entire generations and taking their own civilization down with them.  Even the timing of the Peshawar school attacks were deliberate, to coincide with Christian Advent and Christmas. 

Evil works like that.

I don't know how to annihilate Islamic extremists, except to kill them. But, what I do know is this. If these extremist evil doers will stop at absolutely nothing to take down their own civilizations, then we don't want to know what horrors they are creating to kill all the rest of us.

Pope's call for Orthodox - Roman Christian and Jewish unity could help defeat Islamic extremism

Middle East genocidal wars have their origins in deep rooted religious and ancient tribal differences. Therefore, it seems to make strategic sense to counter radical Islamic extremism with a united counter effort. This movement, conceivably, could be led by Christians, united with moderate Muslims and Jewish leaders, for the purpose of suppressing terrorism.

Middle Eastern Christians need protection from annihilation as much as any group of persecuted refugees the world has ever seen. In addition to loosing everything as a result of the religious persecution of Christians by Islamic extremists, including their persecution by Syrian President Assad,  the assaults include desecration of ancient shrines. Between the previous loss of ancient relics during the American invasion of Iraq, and now the desecration of Middle Eastern Christian shrines, there doesn't seem much argument about the seriousness of the War in the Middle East.  In fact, Pope Francis calls the Middle East chaos a piecmeal World War Three.   

Pope Francis said the current global conflicts were effectively a "piecemeal" Third World War. He said this while condemning the arms trade and "plotters of terrorism" sowing death and destruction.

"Humanity needs to weep and this is the time to weep," Francis said in the homily of a Mass during a visit to Italy's largest war memorial, a large, Fascist-era monument where more than 100,000 soldiers who died in World War One are buried.

ISTANBUL — Pope Francis and clerical counterparts in the Orthodox Church vowed (on Sunday) to work together to prevent an exodus of Christians from the Middle East, and they called for “constructive dialogue” with Muslims to resolve conflicts in the embattled region and around the world.

“We cannot resign ourselves to a Middle East without Christians, who have professed the name of Jesus there for two thousand years,” the pope and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Church said in a common declaration issued here on the last leg of a three-day papal visit to Turkey.

The pope made frequent mention on his trip of the plight of Christians and other minorities in areas of Syria and Iraq who have been the focus of persecution by the Islamic State.

His attention to the issue was highlighted in a meeting with a group of young Christian and Muslim refugees from Syria, Iraq and Africa at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Istanbul. 

Pope Francis listened as an Iraqi Christian girl described the refugees’ sufferings and expressed gratitude for his visit, reports The New York Times.

“The degrading conditions in which so many (Syrian and Christian) refugees are forced to live are intolerable,” he added, and called for greater international cooperation “to counter the other causes which are driving people to leave their home countries, and to improve conditions so that people may remain or return home.”

Francis repeated his gratitude to the Turkish government, which is currently sheltering over 1.6 million refugees from Syria, and has relocated nearly 50,000 ethnic Yazidis from Iraq who escaped persecution by the Islamic State since late summer to camps in both Turkey and Iraq.

In their common declaration, the pope and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who represents 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, asked for dialogue and respect for international law in helping to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, “a country of ancient Christian tradition,” and encouraged “constructive dialogue with Islam based on mutual respect and friendship.”

“Inspired by common values and strengthened by genuine fraternal sentiments,” the statement said, “Muslims and Christians are called to work together for the sake of justice, peace and respect for the dignity and rights of every person, especially in those regions where they once lived for centuries in peaceful coexistence and now tragically suffer together the horrors of war.”

Earlier in the day, the sounds of chimes and the smell of incense filled the small 17th-century Church of St. George in the Fener neighborhood of Istanbul as the leaders of the two churches embraced each other against a background of elaborate gold decorations and centuries-old mosaics.

Both expressed a strong will to promote the full unity of Catholic and Orthodox Churches, which were divided 960 years ago.

Before his departure for Rome late Sunday, the pope met Isak Haleva, the chief rabbi of Turkey, and visited Armenian Patriarch Mesrop II, who represents the largest Christian community of Turkish Armenians, around 50,000 people, and who has been in poor health for several years.

 

Turkey has everything to loose if the Islamic extremists continue to gain momentum in the Middle East. Turkey's culture, government and economy will implode if Islamic extremism takes hold in Syria. Therefore, the Pope could be the leader to bring moderate Turkish Muslims together with Orthodox, and Catholic Christians, plus include the Jewish populations (who are dangerously at risk of violent death by Islamic extremism) for the purpose of defeating terrorism in the Middle East. Oh, by the way, and destroy President Assad in Syria in the collective efforts. Indeed, the time for a united religious front to defeat ISIS has come.....and Bless Pope Francis for seizing the moment during his highly risky visit to Turkey. This Third World War needs united leadership, like the strategic abilities in the Second World War managed and eventually won the global war, in favor of the Allies against Nazism and Japan.  

 

Unfortunately and tragically, the United States wasted clout in the Middle East when our nation illegally invaded Iraq under the pretense of destroying Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), which never existed. 

 

Therefore, like World War II needed Winston Churchill when President Roosevelt couldn't mobilize American intervention in Europe, perhaps the Pope can lead what other leaders are somehow powerless to do. In other words, maybe Pope Francis can call for religious unity to save the Middle East from complete annihilation by Islamic extremism and protect the region's Christian culture from violent extinction.

Sheik Muhammad al-Yaqoubi could be the Islam leader to transcend the extremists

Public Broadcasting Network (PBN) journalist Margaret Warner introduced Sheik Muhammad al-Yaquobi. In an interview, the well spoken religious leader spoke with Warner as the completely positive alternative to the horrific images of Islamic extremists, who are dressed in black, while heinously terrorizing innocent people, with evil random.
 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/syrian-cleric-led-funeral-prayers-peter-kassig-speaks-islamic-state-assad/
Americans rarely, if ever, see Islamic clerics who are well spoken and speaking about humanitarian issues. Instead, Islamic extremists on the media are men in black, bent on destruction of civilization as we know it. 

On the other hand, in a PBS interview with Warner, al-Yaquobi said the evil ISIS leader Baghdadi is going to to to hell. In other words, Muhammad al-Yaquobi condemned the ISIS extremist leader Baghdadi to eternal damnation. Moreover, al-Yaquobi called on other Muslims to rise against terrorism and Islamic extremism's murderous tactics.
 
Al-Yaquobi is a Syrian Muslim scholar. He was born May 7, 1963 in Damascus, Syria.  In 1991, he joined the PhD program of linguistics in the Oriental Studies Department of the University of Gothenburg. In Sweden, he worked as a researcher and teacher of Arabic literature. In 1999, the Swedish Islamic Society appointed him mufti of Sweden.

In 1992, he moved to England and completed the FCE, CAE, CCS, and CPE Cambridge courses in English within a year, before returning to Sweden where he continued his studies in Swedish.
Al-Yaqoubi has studied seven languages.

 In April 2011, he was one of the first Islamic scholars to support the Syrians in an uprising against the Assad government. Al-Yaqoubi demanded the resignation of the evil Syrian leader, President Bashar al-Assad.
 
Since the start of the Syrian uprising, al-Yaqoubi has campaigned internationally to provide humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees. In December 2012, he led a convoy for the delivery of vast quantities of food, baby food and blankets to displaced Syrians in Turkey.

After being exiled from Syria, he took part in a sustained international effort to provide aid for Syrian people. He has publicly urged the international community to “implement help immediately” and to “lift the siege” on Syria.

Al-Yaquobi has a sad personal story.  His father, who was his role model and mentor, died in 1985.  Both of his wives died within one year of each other.  He is the father of three children by his first wife, who died in an automobile accident in 2006, when she was five months pregnant.





Muhummad al-Yaqoubi led prayers at the memorial of assassinated humanitarian Peter Kessig, who was murdered by ISIS executioners.

Sheikh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, a prominent Syrian Sunni cleric and vocal critic of the Islamic State (ISIS), led prayers at the funeral of American beheading victim Peter Kassig. 

Chief foreign correspondent Margaret Warner interviewed al-Yaqoubi, who as been exiled from Syria. 

Warner asked al_Yaqoubi about atrocities committed by the Islamic State, and asked him why the militant ISIS group is able to gain followers and the fight against the Assad regime.

Two months ago, al-Yaqoubi released an open letter to the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, telling him: “You have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder,” which he called a great wrong and an offense to Islam.  Sheik Muhammad al_Yaqoubi said ISIS carries hatred to the world, to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

About Assad, al-Yaqoubi said the Sryian president opted for violence and extreme use of power from the very early days of the Srian uprising. Moreover, Assad released from prison the most extremist Islamists, knowing that they would opt for carrying guns and fighting and revenge. So that's how the shape of the Syrian uprising changed from the beginning. It's how ISIS was able to recruit from among these extremists.  

MARGARET WARNER asked al-Yaqoubi about his declaration that al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed ruler of this Islamic State caliphate, was going to hell. "What do you mean," she asked?

SHEIK MUHAMMAD AL-YAQOUBI: al Baghdadi is against Islam. He’s non-Muslim, according to the Muslim standards, because he’s allowing people to kill Muslims, referring to the Book of Allah, wrongly using religious texts.

This is anti-Islamic. He’s going against God. He’s going against the message of Islam, Mohammed, peace be upon him. If he repents and come in a court and defend himself, he won’t have any one single verse of the Koran to defend his opinion in killing innocent people.

MARGARET WARNER: What will this hell look like?

SHEIK MUHAMMAD AL-YAQOUBI: For him?

MARGARET WARNER: Yes.

SHEIK MUHAMMAD AL-YAQOUBI: Hell will — for him, God knows what type of punishment he’s going to receive for this savagery which has never been witnessed in modern history.You know, in Islam, we have never seen any group as extremist as this group. 

Warner's insightful interview with al-Yaqoubi was the most interesting I've ever watched with any Muslim cleric, especially when being questioned by a woman.  Al-Yaqoubi was engaging and seemed to be making eye contact with Warner. He didn't appear to be scripted or reticent about answering any of Warner's questions.

Al-Yaqoubi might be able to transcend the black robed Islamic terrorist images Americans have grown accustomed to seeing on television. Hopefully, we'll hear more inspiring interviews from this well spoken Islamic religious leader, especially if he motivates Muslims to fight against, rather than with, the evil ISIS.

Leon Panetta needs a reality check while he second guesses US troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria

Leon Panetta was once a Congressman and a former Cabinet member, but he's truly lost his sense of reality by criticizing President Obama about how to respond to the Middle East turmoil. Panetta is receiving a lot of Fox News hype by criticizing President Obama for the crises now consuming the Middle East with evil ISIS beheading innocent people and the Syrian revolution against President Assad. 

Well, Mr. Panetta, maybe you've become bored by raising almonds on your California farm, so you've decided to be a pundit. Nevertheless, while you were harvesting nuts, the fact is, thousands of American military were among the dead who fought in Iraqi Freedom and their deaths accomplished virtually nothing - zero!

Now, Mr. Panetta, you have the audacity to criticize President Obama because the US military can't defeat ISIS and help the rebels in Syria unless boots are on the ground.  Mr. Panetta, the ISIS network would conduct victory celebrations in advance of news that Americans would put US military boots on the ground to fight against them. ISIS generates about $1 million a day in clandestine economic transactions. It would take them about three weeks to pay for the capture of just one US military person to parade in front of a masked executioner. In fact, if the US is stupid enough to put boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria, I'd be willing to bet money on odds about the number of hours it would take before one US military person is a hostage.  

Shame on Mr. Panetta's preening punditry. He hasn't even acknowledged the valiant bravery of the thousands of US military who believed they were fighting for Iraqi Freedom. Now Fallujha is occupied by ISIS while American military blood is still fresh in the streets.  

US, with its coalition nations' airstrikes and drones can deter the ISIS advances, but it will take a local militia to put boots on the ground to defeat these terrorists.

American military must not give one more sacrifice to protect Iraq. Clearly, the ISIS enemy can be overcome by the sheer numbers of thousands of opponents who have nothing to loose by resisting the evil group's atrocious power grabbing. In other words, there are more people in refugee camps than those who are controlled by ISIS. A massive human chain is a very treacherous anti ISIS strategy, but the alternative is also dangerous. There's nothing to be gained by sitting in a refugee camp waiting for the next meal to be served while terrorists are randomly having their way by spreading fear. 

Mr. Panetta, you are wrong to be edging on President Obama, by criticizing his decision to keep the US military from putting boots on the ground in the Middle East. We know the myth of "mission accomplished". Indeed, the Iraq mission was not accomplished. Iraqi Freedom became a failed operation after the US military left. Iraq. President Maliki didn't want the US to stay in Iraq.

 US military should be protecting Americans from terrorist attacks, and let the Iraqi and Syrian rebels put their own boots on the ground to defeat ISIS.