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Tag Archives: combat

Hamas vs Humanity – Egypt Proposes, Hamas Disposes – Fighting Resumes

15 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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ceasefire, combat, conflict, Hamas, Israel, middle east conflict, war

a. Israel shall cease all hostilities against the Gaza Strip via land, sea, and air, and shall commit to refrain from conducting any ground raids against Gaza and targeting civilians.

b. All Palestinian factions in Gaza shall cease all hostilities from the Gaza Strip against Israel via land, sea, air, and underground, and shall commit to refrain from firing all types of rockets, and from attacks on the borders or targeting civilians.

http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Full-text-of-Egyptian-proposal-for-a-ceasefire-362841 – 7/15/2014.


IDF_50MoreRocketsReceivedFromHamas-584x

The number of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel had climbed to 76 by 9 a.m. when the IDF resumed operations.

# # #

Fallujah – One More Time

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iraq, Islamic Small Wars, Politics

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combat, Fallujah, Iraq

▶ US and Iraqi military continue to assault Fallujah – YouTube – 1/7/2014

* * *

“The prime minister appeals to the tribes and people of Fallujah to expel the terrorists from the city in order to spare themselves the risk of armed clashes,” the statement read.

Iraq PM urges Fallujah to expel al-Qaeda – Middle East – Al Jazeera English – 1/7/2014.

* * *

Iraq moves up tanks, guns for looming Falluja assault | Reuters – 1/7/2014.

In Iraq, a Sunni revolt raises specter of civil war – The Washington Post – 1/6/2014.

Al-Qaeda force captures Fallujah amid rise in violence in Iraq – The Washington Post – 1/3/2014.

* * *

This is a breaking story with American involvement in field operations.

The pursuit of conventional fighting methods may make for better show-and-tell than real security gains.  Whatever elements of the Islamist front may be in Fallujah, and whatever their level of coherence and cohesion, they may hide their weapons, blend in with the population, retreat into the landscape, abandon the cause (temporarily), in short, live the lives of guerrilla fighters while the heavy machinery moves around them and state intelligence and resolve, the same that should have forestalled the Islamist’s drift into town in the first place, fails.

Or not.

We shall see.

Addendum

One move too far: How Iraq’s Nuri al-Maliki overreached in Anbar – CNN.com – 1/7/2014.

Islamist Militants Hold On In Iraq’s Fallujah, Ramadi – 1/7/2014.

Sunni Fighters in Anbar Defiant as Iraq Readies Attack – Bloomberg – 1/7/2014.

Iraq Haunts Obama: Bin Laden Dead, War Over — and Fallujah Back in Play – Bloomberg – 1/7/2014.

# # #

Syrian Air Base Whodunit — Bouncing Off the Surface of Today’s Big Blast

31 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Journalism, Middle East, Politics, Regions, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey

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air base bombing, combat, intelligence, journalism, Latakia, news analysis, spying, Syria

Channel 2 News reported that the attack’s target was a S-125 surface-to-air missiles battery.

Satellite images of the area obtained by Channel 2 show the Russian-made Neva missiles, as well as a SA-3 missile battery, that also includes a command center with a radar to track the missiles’ targets and broadcasting anthenas to track the missiles as they are launched. The missiles have a range of 35km. and a 70k. warhead.

Reports: Syrian air base destroyed in missile attack from sea | JPost | Israel News – 10/31/2013.

The casual reader Syrian war news may be subject to many impressions from the media but can no longer “see” or sort the chaos involved in Syria’s agony.

RT and the alternative press of which it has become a part will probably get in its digs as it did back in July by accusing Turkey of enabling an Israeli-borne attack on a shipment of Russian Yakhont anti-ship missiles.

Reference: INTERNATIONAL – Turkish FM denies Israel used Turkish base in Syria attack – 7/15/2013

Syrian President Bashar al Assad has made no secret of his contempt for Israel or his intentions to target the Jewish state with the intent of deflecting attention from his own failings.  A little more than a month again in the latest of rants, he had said, “We have weapons that could blindside Israel.”  Indeed, it’s possible, but it’s possible too that he will find himself with fewer of them this afternoon, which is not to say Israel is the only party that could have or would have done it.

______

In the murky period associated with Assad’s chemical weapons deployment, the British seem to have alternately prepared for a strike on Syria and reversed tracks on the same.

Reference: SAS hunting Syrian missiles as Allies prepare for bombing blitz – Mirror Online – 8/28/2013; Cameron forced to rule out British attack on Syria after MPs reject motion | World news | The Guardian – 8/29/2013.

How far did that reversal go?

Did intelligence stand down?  Were agents retrieved?

Back in July, MI6 seems to have been worried about Assad’s chemical weapons stocks finding their way to the Al Qaeda affiliates operating in Syria and with Chinese and Russian meddling on the high tech side of the stew.

Reference: MI6 boss – ‘UK could face Syrian rebel gas attack’ – The Scotsman – 7/11/2013.

I would think it doubtful that British military and security operations have backed off the theater at all but rather gone about their missions more quietly than during the potential run-up to a punitive strike in relation to the chemical weapons imbroglio.

______

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a dilemma. He is invested in a peace process at home with the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan. And Turkey has a flourishing relationship with Iraqi Kurdistan, whose oil and natural gas it needs desperately. Yet the permissive attitude of the Turkish state toward the jihadists battling the Syrian Kurds has been a source of trouble for Erdogan. He has gone a long way toward keeping the jihadists at arm’s length.

The Kurds Get a Second Chance in Syria – Bloomberg – 10/30/2013.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had to navigate the slim channel between NATO’s interests and those of the Muslim Brotherhood, on whose behalf he appears to be struggling in the Egyptian quarter of the middle east mess, and outright affiliation with the Al Qaeda affiliates that have apparently slipped across his borders to badger Christians and Kurds in Syria’s northern regions.

Who is cooperating with whom in Syria?

Whatever the true state of affairs may be as regards each aspect of the fighting in Syria, one probably will not find it on the front pages of newspapers.

The desk analysts consigned to perusing clippings may have cause to believe they’ve been left with looking over the shell of a very rotten egg.

Reference: The Spies Inside Damascus – By Ronen Bergman | Foreign Policy – 9/19/2013.

______

I’d rather turn “data” into “information” than turn out lists, but data for lists comes fast and quick and paints its own picture.  This insert, another brief melange, might suggest how hot the spy games are getting around the mixed motivation fighting inside Syria.

German citizen charged with spying for Syria – 10/29/2013.

Top Syrian intelligence officer killed by rebels – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page – 10/17/2013.

Spies Against Armageddon by Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman – 10/16/2013; Jihadists flooding into northern Syria put Turkey on edge | Fox News – 10/15/2013.

German spies say Syria jets in Iran | Sky News Australia – 10/6/2013.

Australian spies confirmed chemical use on civilians by Syrian regime | News.com.au – 10/5/2013.

Networks of Spies Aid Syria Gas-Attack Probe – WSJ.com – 8/23/2013.

Sir John Sawers: Poor pay and conditions making Britain’s spies ‘unwilling to go the extra mile’ | Mail Online – 7/22/2013.

Nest of Spies: Syria detects ‘spy rocks’ lodged by Israel – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page – 4/1/2013.

______

For more than four decades, Syria’s ruling family — President Bashar Assad and his late father, Hafez — has depended on informants — or the fear of them — to help keep the population in line.

“It was a regime of informants,” Aqidi said.

In Syria, fear of spies pervades rebel and government ranks alike – latimes.com – 10/24/2013.

In America’s entertainment culture, the statement “Trust no one” has developed a life all its own, but also one largely in jest; of course, with the post-9/11 domestic black operations elephant of a budget, that good humored acceptance of some potential invasive probing may change; however, for war torn Syria, there’s no humor or good natured winks to be found: the spies would seem to have swarmed one another’s offices and outposts.

______

Mr. Obama delivered what U.S. officials describe as an unusually blunt message: The U.S. believed Turkey was letting arms and fighters flow into Syria indiscriminately and sometimes to the wrong rebels, including anti-Western jihadists.

Seated at Mr. Erdogan’s side was the man at the center of what caused the U.S.’s unease, Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s powerful spymaster and a driving force behind its efforts to supply the rebels and topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey’s Spymaster Plots Own Course on Syria – WSJ.com – 10/10/2013.

______

In unusually blunt public remarks, Prince Turki al-Faisal called Obama’s policies in Syria “lamentable” and ridiculed a U.S.-Russian deal to eliminate Assad’s chemical weapons. He suggested it was a ruse to let Obama avoid military action in Syria.

“The current charade of international control over Bashar’s chemical arsenal would be funny if it were not so blatantly perfidious. And designed not only to give Mr. Obama an opportunity to back down (from military strikes), but also to help Assad to butcher his people,” said Prince Turki, a member of the Saudi royal family and former director of Saudi intelligence.

Saudi Arabia warns of shift away from U.S. over Syria, Iran | Reuters – 10/22/2013.

Stop with the posturing, please.

Let the truth out.

______

Today’s alternative and blithely anti-Semitic Far Gone and Leftward Press seems to be conflating today’s explosion 30 minutes south of Latakia with Israel and the old “Davy Crocket” tactical nuclear weapon.

I’m not waiting on the radiation reports.

The one thing certain about today’s blast is the real journalists are absent, the politically venal are present and active, and whatever pictures and news reports make into the still news vetting mainstream media tell very little about what has happened or what is happening in combat inside Syria.

Additional and Cited Reference In Loosely Reversed Chronological Order

Reports huge blast ‘destroys Syrian air defence base’ at Latakia; Israel blamed | Herald Sun – 10/31/2013.

“A Syrian Missile Base was Attacked” – 10/31/2013.

Massive Explosion at Syrian Base, Israel Blamed – Middle East – News – Israel National News – 10/31/2013.

Articles: British Progressives Join the Sunni-Shia War in Syria – 10/31/2013.

The Kurds Get a Second Chance in Syria – Bloomberg – 10/30/2013.

Kuwaiti paper: Israel bombed Syrian missile shipment to Hizballah – 10/23/2013.

Assad: We have weapons that could blindside Israel | The Times of Israel – 9/26/2013.

SAS hunting Syrian missiles as Allies prepare for bombing blitz – Mirror Online – 8/28/2013

US officials claim Israeli strike in Latakia missed some Yakhont missiles – Threat Matrix – 7/31/2013.

INTERNATIONAL – Turkish FM denies Israel used Turkish base in Syria attack – 7/15/2013: ““Turkey will neither be a part nor a partner of such ‘attacks.’ The ones who claim this want to damage Turkey’s power and reputation,” he said. “It is out of the question that Turkey and Israel are part of a joint military operation.”

MI6 boss – ‘UK could face Syrian rebel gas attack’ – The Scotsman – 7/11/2013.

Israel Air Force Targets SA-17 SAM sent to Hezbollah – Defense Update – Military Technology & Defense News – 1/31/2013.

FNS – Lebanon – Tanks Move in the Streets

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

combat, conflict, fighting, Islamic Small Wars, ISW, Lebanese, Lebanon, political, politics, sectarian, warfare

From AFP:

From Al Jazeera:

NOW.  “Live Coverage: Sidon fighting sparks tension.”  June 24, 2013.

Is comment necessary?

As mentioned yesterday, the natural drift of Syria’s bitching sectarian and factional conflict into the Lebanese sphere has both clarified and amplified the same tensions in Lebanon and those may not be quelled in a day or two.  In fact, the resentments and rivalries and perceived stakes have been building for years, and the passions surfacing into a hail of bullets do so distinctly absent of reason.

It’s the programming that fights.

Additional Reference

AFP Videos – English (YouTube)

Al Jazeera.  “Deadly fighting rages in Lebanon.”  June 24, 2013.

El Deeb, Sarah.  “Lebanon Clashes Leave At Least 16 Soldiers Dead at Sidon Mosque.”  Huffington Post, June 24, 2013:

The maverick cleric was little known until few years ago and his growing following was a symptom of the deep frustration among Sunnis who resent the Hezbollah-led Shiite ascendancy to power in Lebanon. Hezbollah and its allies dominate Lebanon’s government.

Siryoti, Daniel and David Baron.  “”Lebanon on the brink of war as sectarian violence enters second day.”  Israel Hayom, June 24, 2013.

Syria – Posted Over the Weekend

12 Sunday May 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Jordan, Middle East, Politics, Syria

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Tags

2013, civil war, combat, crisis, field operations, May, refugee, refugees, Syria, video

Who, what, where, when, how, and most important, why?

In one instance, toward the end of this post, I’ve noted footage posted over the weekend but actually at least two month’s old.

The YouTube search strings were “Syria, combat, today” and “Syria, refugee crisis, today” and similar.  Those yield the most recent uploads on the system, but, as suggested, not necessarily the most recent footage.

_____

&

&

&

&

I don’t know the posters of the above data — and it would be nice if they provided more information, not to give away their positions, but to fill in other puzzle pieces.

Whatever they — whoever — are doing Out There, the consequences of the military tit-for-tat may be other than these more notable, definite, predictable, and dispicable ends.

&

&

Note the sectarian aspect in Lebanon as Hezbollah appears to be mobilizing and keeping Sunni and Shiite Muslims become a part of neutral humanitarian security concerns.

As noted in the previous post, some 3.4 million Syrians have been displaced by the civil.

It’s impossible, I think, to look at a MIG bombing run against a town or a rebel hit on a tank and feel any kind of hooray for one side or the other (although Maher al-Assad has probably made the best case for rebellion and revolution ever).

&

&

Nick Paton Walsh’s piece showed up earlier on YouTube on March 6, 2013 . . . .

I haven’t the (uncompensated) energy to track each of these pieces back to their first appearance, and with the combat footage, only God knows who’s collecting and posting those recordings.  Still, the principle holds: whatever the fighting may be doing for the Assad regime and for the rebels, whatever either imagine they are fighting for, what the civil war has produced is a civilian catastrophe beyond comprehension.

The numbers — those 3.4 million displaced — provide the barest frame to a story that for each displaced person has only begun.

# # #

Syria, Today – Even Watching Near Real Time – Hard To Figure Out

01 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics

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Tags

analysis, combat, political, politics, Syria, web journalism

Eight minutes of You-Are-THERE!

Choose your front.  Choose your side.  Combat clips are all over the web these days.

That video that follows appears to be a captured Free Syria Army recording — one cannot believe the tank will not turn its turret toward the viewer, which it does two or three times toward the end, and fire (not shown). Continue reading →

Israel – Gaza 2012 Footage Via YouTube

15 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

combat, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, rockets, video

Sara Sidner – “‘Raining bombs’ on Gaza Strip” – near live (four hours old) on CNN (November 15, 2012).

Levs, Josh, Sara Sidner, and Talal Abu-Rahma.  “Rockets pound Israel, Gaza as Netanyahu alleges ‘double war crime'”.  CNN, November 15, 2012.

Sidner, Sara and Talal Rahma.  “Rockets, airstrikes reignite Mideast conflict.” CNN, November 15, 2012.

“There were at least 70 strikes by warplanes and ships Wednesday, officials from Palestinian militant groups said. As night fell, more airstrikes could be heard, and Hamas security officials said four more attacks hit empty swaths of farmland in Gaza late Wednesday. The IDF said at least 128 rockets had been fired from Gaza since Saturday.”

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  “Hamas exploitation of civilians as human shields: Photographic evidence.”  March 6, 2008.

– The deliberate launching of rocket from populated areas
– The deliberate use of civilian homes to shield Hamas arms and explosives manufacturing facilities
– The deliberate use of civilians as human shields against anticipated airstrikes”

Nothing has changed in the past four years since the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs published its observations, verifiable, on the illegal rules-of-war in place, de facto, in Gaza.

A recent entry on the IDF blog, which may be overwhelmed by taffic — I couldn’t reach it a few minutes ago — covers the same theme: Hamas launches and stores weapons and materiel in the most unconscionable locations available, knowing “their world” (which truly has become more a world of their own than anything remotely shared by any modern society) will be able to “brag” high civilian casualties when Israel responds to Hamas and affiliate rocket launches against its sovereign land.

Wikipedia.  “List of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, 2012”.  “As of October 2012, over 800 rockets had been launched at Israel from Gaza since January 2012.”

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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