• Wild celebrations in Manbij Syria, after major defeat for ISIS
  
• Manbij was known as 'Little London' because of British jihadists
  

• India, Pakistan celebrate independence day with vitriolic accusations about Kashmir
  
• Militants hoist Pakistani flags in Kashmir on Sunday
  

(08-15-2016, 12:53 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: > Irony - guess which ethnic group Shinawatra
> is from?

• Truck bombing by PKK terrorists kills seven in southeastern Turkey
  
• Turkey threatens EU migrant deal, saying EU is humiliating Turkey, not helping
  
• Turkey's failed coup raises concerns about nuclear weapons at Incirlik Air Base
  

• Russia-Iran airbase agreement further isolates Saudi Arabia
  
• Continuing Mideast realignment: Russia and Iran vs Saudi Arabia
  
• Generational alignments of the world's religions - hypothesis
  

• Hindu: Fiji (Protestant 45%, Hindu 27.9%), Guyana (Protestant
  30.5%, Hindu 28.4%), India (note: Buddhist:0%), Mauritius, Nepal,
  
• Shia Muslim: Iran, Bahrain
  
• Buddhist: Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, China (18.2%), Japan,
  North Korea, South Korea, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Singapore, Sri Lanka
  (Sinhalese 70.2%, vs Hindu Tamils)
  
• Sunni Muslim: Indonesia, Malaysia

• Universal religions: Catholicism, Sunni Islam,
  Buddhism.
  
• Targeted religions: Protestant Christianity, Orthodox
  Christianity, Shia Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, Judaism

• Dynasties for targeted religions: Parthian - Sasanian -
  Persian - Shia - Mauryan - Hindu - Slavs - Judaism
  
• Dynasties for universal religions: Seleucid - Bactrian -
  Arabian - Marwanians - Sunni - Khorasan - Abbasids - Mongols - Tartars
  - Turks - Ottomans - Buddhist

• Number of migrants reaching Greece surges since Turkey's attempted coup
  
• Concern grows over unsafe conditions in refugee camps in Greece
  
• Fears grow that the EU-Turkey migrant deal will collapse
  

(08-18-2016, 11:43 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: > The East Bloc (called the SCO in its current "release") uses the
> scissors strategy to sow confusion on the part of the West. The
> way this works is - Russia creates one camp of loosely or tightly
> affiliated nations, and China creates another, competing
> camp. This deludes the West into thinking that ultimately Russia
> and China will come to loggerheads and will never form The Single
> Clenched Fist. This way, right on the eve of Great War, when the
> Single Clenched Fist moves into operational mode, the West will
> stand dumbfounded, realizing that Lucifer's Hammer will be twice
> as brutal as anyone might have imagined.

(08-18-2016, 11:43 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: > I know you pooh, pooh this view, and believe your own formulation
> is the superior one.

> The beauty of my formulation is, if I am wrong, then we will be
> overprepared.

> Whereas, if you (and the multitudes of conventional geopolitical
> analysts subscribing to similar notions) are wrong, we are so
> screwed.

(08-18-2016, 03:59 PM)Cynic Hero 86 Wrote: > John X Trump Getting elected changes the ball game. Suppose if
> trump signs a Molotov-Ribbentrop type pact with Xi Jinping so that
> when China Attacks its missiles and Armies would be headed north
> toward Russia and Siberia. After which China would have very few
> missiles left to use against the US if we decide to enter the war
> later on.

(08-18-2016, 04:35 PM)Cynic Hero 86 Wrote: > At the moment it looks like China and Russia would be on the same
> side. However if The China-Russia Partnership is hollow and they
> are revealed as bitter enemies as you say; Doesn't it make More
> sense for the US to arrange to sit out the earlier phases of the
> war and enter the war later on while facing relatively weakened
> enemies rather than Entering First and facing the enemy when they
> are still at full power.

• Stephen K. Bannon is named chairman of Donald Trump's campaign
  
• Furious UN envoy Staffan de Mistura excoriates Syria's Bashar al-Assad
  
• Six years of UN envoys and Syrian peace talks
  

• Zimbabwe police violently disperse protests over new 'bond note' currency
  
• Zimbabwe launching a Soviet style command agriculture program
  

• Massive rally in Sanaa Yemen interrupted by Saudi warplane bombing
  
• Generational history of Shia Houthis in Yemen
  
• US military reduces support for Saudi coalition in Yemen
  

• Turkey's downward spiral continues with massive wedding terror attack
  
• Report: US military moving nuclear weapons from Turkey to Romania
  
• Turkey's Erdogan announces a complete U-turn on Syria policy
  

• International Criminal Court gets conviction for 'cultural genocide' in Timbuktu Mali
  
• In an embarrassing turnaround, Russia removes its bombers from Iran
  
• Turkey begins to fully enter the war in Syria militarily
  

• Kurds, Assad forces, US and ISIS converge in Hasaka, alarming Turkey
  
• Turkey launches rebel army to fight both ISIS and Kurds in Syria
  

• The YPG is fighting ISIS in the town of Hasaka. Also, the
  forces of Syria's regime president Bashar al-Assad are fighting ISIS
  in Hasaka as well.
  
  
• Not surprisingly, the YPG is also fighting the al-Assad forces in
  Hasaka, and has scored a major victory against al-Assad this
  week.
  
  
• Al-Assad's warplanes have been bombing the YPG around Hasaka.
  
  
• Last week, Syrian jets dropped bombs on Kurds in Hasaka, in an
  area where American troops were present in support of the YPG. The US
  scrambled two F-22s to confront the Syrian jets.
  
  
• The Pentagon warned the Syrian regime that the US would take
  action against the Syrian regime if US forces and its YPG partners are
  threatened:
  
  > [indent]<QUOTE>"We’re going to defend our forces where they are. We
  > advise them [the Syrians] to steer clear of where we’re operating.
  >
  > We're going to continue to provide support and provide defensive
  > support in particular to forces on the ground engaged in the
  > [ISIS] fight, and particularly those forces that are partnered up
  > with the coalition forces."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
  
  The Pentagon spokesman said this is "not a no-fly zone" in northern
  Syria, but "You can label it what you want."
  
  
• The Kurds are now demanding that al-Assad regime forces leave the
  Hasaka region altogether, giving the YPG and its political arm, the
  Democratic Union Party (PYD), complete control. Rami Abdulrahman,
  director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on
  the war, says, "Even if [regime forces] keep a symbolic presence, it
  is a big defeat for the regime in Hasaka."
  
  
• Turkey is becoming increasingly alarmed by the growing strength
  and success of the YPG.

• US VP Biden snubbed by Turkey's angry president Erdogan
  
• North Korea lays land mines to prevent soldiers from defecting
  
• UN Security Council has emergency meeting on North Korea missile tests
  

• Turkey's 'Operation Euphrates Shield' turns into full-scale invasion of Syria
  
• US turns on Syrian Kurds as they're attacked by Turkey
  
• Debka: Israel in military action against ISIS in Egypt's Sinai
  

• Block the expansion of the Syrian Kurds westward, and prevent
  them from linking up regions that they control. Turkey considers the
  Syrian Kurds to be linked to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party
  (PKK), and creating an independent Kurdish state is the nightmare
  scenario for Turkey.
  
  
• Provide a base for Turkish assault on the Syrian Kurds.
  
  
• Create a safe haven (or "buffer zone") for Syrian refugees in
  northern Syria.
  
  
• Push ISIS away from Turkey's borders, and deny ISIS the corridor
  its been using from Jarablus into Turkey to transport supplies from
  Turkey to ISIS, and to infiltrate terrorists back into Turkey to
  perpetrate terror attacks like the wedding attack in Gaziantep.
  
  
• Create a "no-fly zone" in the region in Syria around Jarablus,
  where only Turkish planes, but not Syrian, Russian, Iranian or
  American, planes would be allowed to fly.

• Turkey's PM declares 'all-out war' after new PKK truck bomb attack
  
• After 50 days of violence, unrest in India-controlled Kashmir is unabated
  

• Additional curfews were announced in several districts in
  Kashmir.
  
  
• Two protest leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar
  Farooq, were arrested, to keep them from leading the marches. In
  addition, several more senior separatist leaders were either placed
  under house arrest or taken into preventive custody by the
  authorities.
  
  
• All the roads in the planned protest march route were sealed with
  concertina wires. In addition, forces were deployed along the
  routes.