Now that Vladimir Putin has ordered us out of Syria - "for our own good," of course - and is even contemplating expanding his military operations into Iraq (at Baghdad's invitation, natch), the neoCzar of the twenty-first century Evil Empire is pressing the "draft button" with all ten fingers and all ten toes:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has conscripted 150,000 new military recruits just as he is launching airstrikes in Syria, the Daily Mail reports.
Russia began airstrikes on Wednesday, saying it was attacking only Islamic State (ISIS) targets, though the United States said the targets were nowhere near ISIS locations, and instead hit the [fictional] Free Syrian Army, which is allied with the United States against both ISIS and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russia is working alongside Assad's government, which it says picked the targets. Syria is engaged in a t[wo]-way civil war between Assad....and ISIS.
Once more from the top, people: There is no such thing as a "Free Syrian Army" or "secular rebels". There is only Shiite jihadism and Sunni Jihadism, and the Russians and Iranians are on the side of the Shiite jihadists, which in this instance take the form of an Alawite Baathist. See? It's still clear as mud, but it keeps us out of the Land of Make-Believe.
All that said and established, I don't know that we can say that conscripting 150,000 additional Russian troops necessarily pertains to Putin's operations in Syria. They may well be earmarked for his invasion of Ukraine, or even for deployment against the Baltic States and plunging the figurative dagger into NATO once and for all. Given that Moscow is openly issuing Barack Obama brusque, dismissive, contemptuous commands - that he is obeying - none of those scenarios seems the slightest bit far-fetched, or even unlikely. Indeed, they seem kind of tame to me at this point. I can't think of any reason for Vlad's ambitions to be limited in the slightest.
Meanwhile, the Russians aren't the only U.S. enemy that is taking to bullying us "for our own good":
[The People's Liberation N]avy [is calling] for [the] United States to "reduce [any] risk of misunderstandings".
[Red] China hopes the United States can "scale back activities" that run the risk of "misunderstandings," and "respect [Red] China’s core interests," the Defense Ministry on Thursday cited a senior Chi[Comm] naval commander as saying.
Each country has blamed the other for dangerous moves over several recent incidents of aircraft and ships from [Red] China and the United States facing off in the air and waters around the Asian giant.
And around the North American "giant" as well.
“(We) hope the U.S. side can pay great attention to [Red] China’s concerns, earnestly respect our core interests, avoid words and actions that harm bilateral ties, and reduce activities which cause misunderstandings or misjudgments,” [Admiral Sun Jianguo] added.
Sounds like a not-so-thinly veiled demand for the U.S. to abandon support for our heretofore Pacific Rim allies like Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, even Australia, and evacuate the Western Pacific, doesn't it? And after that, what? Cede Hawaii? The Aleutians? Even Alaska? Sure, it sounds far-fetched, the stuff of Tom Clancy novels, but look at this from the perspective of Putin and Xi Jinping: Barack Obama follows their every command, concedes their every demand, puts up no resistance, even empty rhetoric. He has voluntarily removed the United States from the world stage as an obstacle to their global ambitions of conquest without their even having to pay any price for such a strategic windfall. Why wouldn't they come to believe that they can just walk in and accept our unconditional surrender without firing a shot?
Exit JASmius-echoing quote from Jazz Shaw:
The Barack Obama / Hillary Clinton reset button has turned out to work magnificently. The relations between the United States and both China and Russia have been zeroed out and allowed to grow into an entirely new paradigm. And in this brave new world the other significant global powers are completely discounting the United States as they step forward boldly in military, as well as economic matters. They have no fear of us and apparently are losing interest in even the pretense of having any respect for us.
Why? Because they know there will be no price to pay for it.
Reset accomplished.
UPDATE: Why does Barack Obama persist in thinking that Vladimir Putin still listens to him anymore? Yes, that was a rhetorical question:
Barack Obama warned Friday that Russia's military engagement in Syria in support of strongman Bashar al-Assad is a "recipe for disaster," though Washington could still work with Moscow on reducing tensions.
Disaster for the United States, maybe. But that was the point of O's Syria policy, so I'm not sure what he's talking about.
Russian President Vladimir Putin "doesn't distinguish between ISIS and a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr Assad go," Obama told reporters, referring to the self-proclaimed Islamic State group.
That's probably because there's no such thing as a "moderate Sunni opposition," and to the extent there ever was, it either joined ISIS long ago or was massacred by them.
"From their perspective, they're all terrorists. And that's a recipe for disaster."
No, actually, it's a recipe for the Russian conquest of Syria, which is pretty much the opposite of a "disaster" for Vladimir Putin, whose sphere of influence is distending at a rate that could get him a gig as the next "Extenze" pitchman.
And I can guarantee you, Barry, that Vlad will never hear nor read a single one of your empty, tiresomely mendatious words, because your words do not matter.
If only the sixty-two million numbnuts who voted for you twice could have showed such insight and wisdom, maybe the 1970s could actually have gotten its foreign policy back.
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