Thursday, October 01, 2015

"The Great Game" continues...





"The Great Game" continues...



and, this ....


"The Great Game": the term was coined by British intelligence officer Arthur Connolly and popularized by Rudyard Kipling.  


Regarding Vladimir Putin bringing Russia into our (otherwise non-existent) "War on ISIS", a friend wrote yesterday:

Putin will defeat ISIS. The American rules of engagement are don't shoot unless they are shooting at you. The Russian rules of engagement will be: have a shot of vodka and kill everything in front of you.
 

Today, with the news that Russian forces (after warning U.S. forces to vacate Syrian airspace -- a warning apparently unchallenged and readily complied-with by the Obama regime) have bombed not ISIS but U.S.-armed Syrian "moderates" who oppose Syrian strongman (and Russian client) Bashar al-Assad, Obama and Kerry just may have learned a basic lesson: Unless you're Bobby-Fucking-Fischer, don't try to play chess against a Russian.

Then again, it may be even more complex than that. A case can be made that (as stated by Lee Smith of the Hudson Institute): 

"...Obama’s underlying goal in Syria is the same as Putin’s—to protect Assad. That aligns Washington with Moscow—and with Iran, as it happens—and pits all against Israel, which sees the Iranian axis as an existential threat. Well, as critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship are quick to note, Israeli and American interests often diverge. That’s certainly the case here, with the Obama administration tying American interests to a confederacy of despots, terrorists, and mass murderers."

                                                                                                            The Stu and Skoonj Show

Reminds me of a story, maybe apocryphal: A lad comes home from college and informs his parents that he's leaving school and will travel to the Syria to join ISIS.  His mother, startled at first, recovers and  plunges a steak knife into his eye.


7 comments:

Esteve said...

That's the guy I saw in an ISIS video with the patch over his eye. Mom should have used a .45 center mass.

Anonymous said...

How DID Jurgen Todenhofer manage to avoid being taken hostage or beheaded? Maybe he endeared himself to his ISIS hosts by telling them that, just like them, he fancied sex with goats and young boys…

Ann Hedonia & Sam Paku

toadold said...

Instead of drones perhaps the US should invent exploding goats.

Anonymous said...

If the price of Russia fighting ISIS and laying waste to pieces of Syria is that Assad stays in power (which he was going to anyway) then I don't really care. Israel wants him gone, but I doubt there is anyone in that shit hole that they would actually like.

Who do we even want in power? We don't want Assad, we certainly don't want Isis. Then there are a ton of little rebel groups who don't really like each other, and some even like Isis. Isn't this the sort of fight where you just root for casualties?

Josh

Kim du Toit said...

"Isn't this the sort of fight where you just root for casualties?"

Preferably 100% casualties.

Anonymous said...

"Israel wants him gone, but I doubt there is anyone in that shit hole that they would actually like."

Really? The alternative to Assad (and the reason Obama wanted him deposed) is the Muslim Brotherhood. Many believe that Assad is protecting Syria's Jews and Christians.

Caballero Andante

Anonymous said...

But Israel is a country, and it's first responsibility is to itself. It see's in Syria a lot of factions of which there is nobody they really like. Assad might be the most stable option, but Israel's priorities are not Syrian citizens, be they Jewish or not.

Josh

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