Syria, Iraq: Russia Shows Its Cards And Wins
He he ... Russia is now really showing off :-)
Four Russian Navy warships have fired a total of 26 missiles at the position of the terrorist group Islamic State in Syria, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced. The missiles were fired from the Caspian Sea.“Four missile ships launched 26 cruise missiles at 11 targets. According to objective control data, all the targets were destroyed. No civilian objects sustained damage,” Shoigu said.
The missiles flew some 1,500 km before reaching their targets, probing their efficiency.
"And a happy birthday to you dear Vladimir Vladimirovich," Shoigu added.
These Russian Klub (3M-14 KalibrN) cruise missile, with some interesting capabilities (vid), crossed Iranian and Iraqi airspace (vid) with the consent of those countries. There is a video of the launches and pictures of the left-overs of a night of "Russian Klub'bing" in Raqqa governate.
These launches have several aims:
- destroy some Islamic State assets in Syria
- provide that Russia, while giving intense air support (vid, 22 bombs in 5 min) to the Syrian army in its attack in Hama, is fully committed to the larger aim of destroying the Islamic State
- demonstrate that Russia can and will engage in the fight from afar should its forces in Syria be attacked. (The earlier "offer" to the U.S. to join the fight against ISIS with Tu-22M(3) long range strikers of even Tu-160 strategic bombers made a similar point.)
- challenge the U.S. to take up the war against the Islamic State in a serious matter.
The U.S. command has bragged about having flown such and such thousands of sorties in its operation Inherent Resolve against the Islamic State. What it did not brag about was that only 20% of those sorties included a weapon release and that many of these releases were only against minor targets. Destroying an "ISIS excavator" with a guided weapon is not war fighting but very expensive pinpricking. Others also noted the differences:
In Tel Aviv, Israeli military analysts have noted that the first Russian airstrikes in Syria seem much more aggressive than those of the U.S.-led coalition.
The Russian forces have now made sure that they have all the assets in or around Syria that are needed
- to prevent the earlier planned NATO no-fly zone
- to generate the superior intelligence needed to destroy the AlQaeda insurgents as well as the Islamic State
- to allow for a settlement of the conflict on the terms of the Syrian government and its allies.
Despite a lot of noise from U.S. politicians, any U.S. controlled "no-fly zone" is now completely out of question. The Russians though could create such a zone in Syria in no time. Already U.S. reconnaissance drones over Syria get intercepted. The announced additional U.S. weapon deliveries to some Kurds and the newly formed Syrian Arab Coalition, which is just another collection of unreliable looters and thieves, will do nothing to free Raqqa or have any other major impact. The Kurds will not fight outside of their territories and the thieves will just sell their weapons, travel to Germany and become "refugees".
The other "relative moderate" rebels the U.S. armed have either turned over their weapons to Al-Qaeda or joined it. The public now learns that up to 80% of the weapons the U.S. delivered to Syria have ended up in the hand of Jihadis. Relaunching such programs again and again will not change that pattern and can no longer be publicly justified.
The U.S. and NATO also make loud noise when two Russians planes violate Turkish airspace (to test the Turkish radars and reaction times :-). But 11 nations in the U.S. coalition regularly violate Syrian airspace to pinprick ISIS and I have yet to see any "western" complaining about that. There will now be more talks between Russia and Turkey, Israel and the U.S. about avoiding air incidents. The Russians will likely simply say "just stay away."
The Russians are offering the U.S. a wider alliance than just some airspace deconfliction. But the U.S. so far rejected that. An alliance with Russia against the Islamic State does not fit its plans of splitting Iraq and Syria into many smaller U.S. dependent entities. The Iraqis, like the Syrians, have noted that and seek a larger role for Russia. The long planned for 4+1 coalition of Russia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Hizbollah now leads the fight against the Islamic State.
The U.S. lost the game. It should take up the Russian offer or leave the table.
Posted by b on October 7, 2015 at 12:57 UTC | Permalink
« previous page“It seems like someone’s hand is pushing freshly trained ISIL fighters to mass along Afghanistan’s northern border. They don’t fight foreign or Afghan government troops,” Kabulov said.He added that on several occasions Taliban groups that refused to join Islamic State were “set up” to be targeted by airstrikes.
“The Afghan Army practically has no aircraft. Only the Americans do. These details bring some very bad thoughts and concerns. We have to take them into account and draw conclusions accordingly,” he said.
Sergun said the US has a long-term goal of preventing stabilization in Central Asian countries and surrounding Russia and China with a network of regimes loyal to America and hotspots of tension.
Posted by: somebody | Oct 8 2015 11:30 utc | 102
Amazing,
ICC want to persecute...drumroll.... RUSSIA for Georgia war of 2008!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/08/us-warcrimes-georgia-idUSKCN0S219620151008
Just show what a pathetic western farce ICC is.
Posted by: ZIP | Oct 8 2015 12:20 utc | 103
excavators and dump trucks!
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/11/03/canada-airstrikes-iraq_n_6096470.html
thats what Can and US call their war on ISIS
Posted by: brian | Oct 8 2015 12:35 utc | 104
Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Oct 7, 2015 9:40:43 AM | 5
no surprise Cold is hostile to the Russian program..but genocide? thats desperation worthy of the MSM
Posted by: brian | Oct 8 2015 12:41 utc | 105
no chinese,,,,people need to stop posting rubbish..it looks like propaganda
Posted by: brian | Oct 8 2015 12:43 utc | 106
There's nothing to figure out.
"Israelis" are Chosen racist supremicists who can do no wrong.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 8, 2015 12:37:23 AM | 100
Would your label include Palestinian Israelis? Or are you a racist suprematist?
Add to the discussion on "Israeli" strategy above: Hezbollah (and Hamas) checkmated all agressive former military doctrine which stated that they would carry the fight to their neighbourhood to avoid the war in their own country. Israel - as in Israeli civilians - would not survive any serious modern war. And among Israeli civilians are 1.7 million "Arab" Palestinian Israelis and a similar number of "Russian speaking" Israeli's who are part of Putin's definition whom he should protect abroad.
Posted by: somebody | Oct 8, 2015 2:49:24 AM | 90
No. Labeling Palestinian Palestinians as "Israeli Palestinians" is over-enthusiastically mawkish, dishonest - and supremacist. I'm not.
Given the second-class status of (your) "Arab" Palestinian Israelis, it seems more likely that their role in "Israeli" society is more akin to NatSec Human Shields than Citizens.
If they were fully fledged Citizens, they wouldn't be labeled the way you label them, somebody.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 8 2015 12:43 utc | 107
@ Mina #92
As usual, Laurent Fabius - the little $--t disturber wrt Syria-Iran-Russia (friend of BHL after all) is saying otherwise;
Posted by: Yul | Oct 8 2015 12:47 utc | 108
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 8, 2015 8:43:57 AM | 107
That is a moot point. Their passport says "Israel". Black people are discriminated in the US, they still are US American.
The madness of the value of Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian, UN passports, the double citizenships and the impossibility to bring a non-Israeli Palestinian partner to Israel is discussed here.
Arab coutries could do a lot for Palestinians just by issuing valid travel documents.
Posted by: somebody | Oct 8 2015 13:19 utc | 109
Posted by: S9000 | Oct 8, 2015 7:06:08 AM | 101
Saker is (obviously) correct about the no-fly zone but (less obviously) wrong about Brzezinski. 2 dozen cruise missiles from 1500 km away make me wonder if Zbig regrets not waiting a few days before rushing into print.
On the other hand, maybe his "isolated" & "disarmed" were typos.
Or maybe the Russians read it and decided to 'send him a message'.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 8 2015 13:27 utc | 110
@101
We should not celebrate too early however. Brzezinski recently wrote that “The Russian naval and air presences in Syria are vulnerable, isolated geographically from their homeland. They could be “disarmed” if they persist in provoking the US“. Guys, I am sorry, but he is absolutely correct!
If by disarming it means the sinking of the naval assets then of course it is possible. The same holds true to the US fleet being far from home and the possibility that it can be sunk.
The real question is whether that's a possibility since the next step becomes WW3. ZBig is talking through his ass and such an overt act isn't going to happen. The US will not risk thermonuclear war to prove a point in Syria.
Posted by: anon48 | Oct 8 2015 13:33 utc | 111
@102 somebody
' Sergun said the US has a long-term goal of preventing stabilization in Central Asian countries and surrounding Russia and China with a network of regimes loyal to America and hotspots of tension. '
And that is the reason that Putin said
On the basis of international law we must join efforts to address the problems that all of us are facing, and create a genuinely broad, international coalition against terrorism, similar to the anti-Hitler coalition, it could unite a broad range of forces resolutely resisting those that, just like NAZIs, sow evil and hatred of human kind.
And that is also a very good reason for Xi to snap out of his 'win-win' fantasies as regards the US, to join the international coalition against terrorism, and to start pulling his weight in the Middle East. So it seems to me at any rate.
Posted by: jfl | Oct 8 2015 13:49 utc | 112
@110 Assuming the CIA and DoD are providing up to date info on Russian sorties, it's likely the Russians have the signal intercepts. If there was a message along these lines, it was probably about that.
My guess the message was still directed at the rebels to keep them off balance about Russian commitment. A guy with a satellite phone can at least alert anyone to Russian planes taking off and landing, but Caspian sea cruise missiles are a whole different beast. The rebels will have less opportunity to be warned about potential sorties. It's a message to give up.
Defeating the rebel groups backed by the U.S. is the only message that matters. Anything else is too cute for the Russians.
Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Oct 8 2015 13:51 utc | 113
@111 anon
I hope you're right. Right now they seem to have adopted the Richard Nixon 'madman' ploy. At least I hope it's a ploy. The present 'incumbent' is a nihilist through and through, even Kissinger thinks he's nuts. At any rate the Russians, Putin, have no more choice than did Ho Chi Minh - they know they have nowhere to go. As somebody points out @102, this is an existential problem for Russia and China. Putin, at least, is facing up to that fact.
Posted by: jfl | Oct 8 2015 13:55 utc | 114
Posted by: somebody | Oct 8, 2015 9:19:48 AM | 109
I disagreed with something you said, and explained what and why. Even you can see what's wrong with #109. Why not stop tying yourself in knots trying to avoid saying non-Jewish "Israelis?"
There's no need to answer that.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 8 2015 13:56 utc | 115
115)
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 8, 2015 9:56:01 AM | 115
There's nothing to figure out.
"Israelis" are Chosen racist supremicists who can do no wrong.
We started with this.
Do you include the 20% Palestinians with Israeli citizenship in your statement?
Would you say, US Americans are religious maniacs who think they are exceptional?
Posted by: somebody | Oct 8 2015 14:16 utc | 116
@105
Pathetic, isn't it? How many people are just absolutely buttsore over thieves, thugs, lowlives, criminals and the occasional religious fundamentalists being bombed to pieces in Syria.
What kind of deep state Zionist turd would be against that?
Posted by: farflungstar | Oct 8 2015 14:21 utc | 117
@111 jfl
This situation in Syria is bigger than than just Russia, Iran, Syria and Hez. The Chinese are involved but to what extent is unknown but clearly these things are known:
Russia and China are members of the SCO.
They have been conducting joint military excercises in Asia and the Med.
Both China and Russia feel threatened by aggressive US actions in their backyard.
The Chinese are still pissed about what happened in Libya.
We just have to wait for the next shoe to drop.
Posted by: anon48 | Oct 8 2015 14:21 utc | 118
@114 jfl
My bad, I replied to your post but referenced mine @111
Posted by: anon48 | Oct 8 2015 14:24 utc | 119
OT;A day after Wapo?had pictures of wildlife living blissfully in Chernobyl,the news today says kids in Fukushima have thyroid cancer 20-50 times normal.
Criminals.
And yeah,the Zionists steal Gaza gas and Golan oil,to go with the stolen Lebanese topsoil.
CH;The only people in America howling at the Russians killing headchoppers are the pols and their Israeli fund raisers.
How will the Zionist MSM frame the issue as Russia bad headchoppers good?
Posted by: dahoit | Oct 8 2015 14:30 utc | 120
@91 Am no expert, but I think DC has various factions who compete for the attention of the president in order to gain status. They are either part of his cabinet, or members from think tanks that are located nearby in the city.
Perhaps the more depraved policy ideas tend to win out
Posted by: bbbbb | Oct 8 2015 15:09 utc | 121
120: How will the Zionist MSM frame the issue as Russia bad headchoppers good?
Framing narrative as Russian Agression against "Syria" and not naming the heachoppers.
Can't say, "well they may be headchoppers, but they're our headchoppers, god damn it".
That would be the truth.
Posted by: fast freddy | Oct 8 2015 15:16 utc | 122
Amazing how the MSM still refers to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as a reference for news from Syria.....
Posted by: georgeg | Oct 8 2015 15:44 utc | 123
@conflict-news feed (granted, one of the worst sources imaginable) posts that France is seeking to enter Syria to create a safe-zone
Posted by: bbbbb | Oct 8 2015 16:18 utc | 124
Some Shias in Iraq seem to be pleased with Putin's bombing in Syria after repeated failures and defeats of their leaders and Iran backed militias they are recreating the cult of the leader around Putin. They call him Hajji Putin and Putin the Shite, a clever myth is spreading that his is really an Iraqi named Abu Tin.
After his many defeats Qassem Soleimani has been replaced by Hajji Putin as the idol and hopeful savior of the Axis of Resistance.
Posted by: Wayoutwest | Oct 8 2015 16:51 utc | 125
On a related matter ...
There seems to be some questions being asked about the number of Toyota vehicles being used in the ME by terrorists.
I think, for what it is worth, this is just sour grapes because the terrorists are using Toyotas instead of Fords, Chevy's/GMCs, or Dodges.
Posted by: Rg an LG | Oct 8 2015 17:05 utc | 126
@118 anon
As you say, "The Chinese are involved but to what extent is unknown ..." The Chinese seem to be playing the same game that Putin finally identified as a loser ... play nice with the Empire and you, too, can be a member in 'good standing'. The Russians tried that for nearly a quarter century and are only now trying to recover. What they lost during that quarter century ... only the Russians seem able to overcome. Well, I'm sure there are men of the same stuff as Mao left in China ... Xi don't look like one.
Posted by: jfl | Oct 8 2015 23:48 utc | 127
@126 r&l
It ain't the trucks, it's the men with guns inside the trucks gonna kill ya. Gonna kill ordinary persons like ourselves, on foot or in their USA/KSA-financed rides. Up against the Syrian Arab Army supported by the Russians ... not so much. There's a limit to what money can buy, and suicide is right up there, at the top of the list of items whose availability is limited.
The US is trying to sell the Japanese as the suppliers of al-CIA-da. No sale.
Posted by: jfl | Oct 8 2015 23:58 utc | 128
Thanks for this, B. This is a huge lesson for the US, their lackeys and the whole "international community". The russian bear is back in full force...
Posted by: guy | Oct 9 2015 4:06 utc | 129
@91 blues, @121 bb*
I think Paul Craig Roberts identified the two factions who alternate running the US government a couple, three years ago in one of his articles reposted at counterpunch.org : wall street vs the mic. Their respective greed is each so great [boundless] that they are now like yin and yang in the circle. Either one might serve as the definitition of the zero summer.
So the struggle in the US is the financial thieves vs the military-industrial thieves, basically. Although the fed and wall street think they have finally perfected the perpetual motion machine, they'll be back at the mic's throat when their latest non-perpetual bubble bursts.
As for the apparent disarray within the mic over Syria ... only the 'apparent' part is 'new', the disarray is permanent.
Posted by: jfl | Oct 9 2015 5:00 utc | 130
@127 jfl
The other shoe is dropping now. The US has stated that they will openly challenge Chinese claims in the South China Sea and the Chinese response has been that they will challenge US actions.
I look at this as a probing action by the US to see how willing the Chinese are in making a stand and they have responded. If united in purpose and principle a China / Russia military union is a global reset akin to Cold WAR 2 where there is at least respect for the other sides interests. The regime change policies will bet met with action and not rhetoric and will become very costly.
Posted by: anon48 | Oct 9 2015 11:22 utc | 131
The comments to this entry are closed.
and "The Critic" is not the only one disagreeing with our local Armchair Generals
http://thesaker.is/dreams-of-a-sleeping-alligator-dream-two-size-matters-and-obamas-zugzwang/
Posted by: S9000 | Oct 8 2015 11:06 utc | 101