BATTLEFORWORLD – January 30, 208: (In the “enhanced” Silent Revolution Of Truth Compilation Edition, the free PDF book, refer to page 1412 and read about the American empire “mad with power”. UPDATED, PDF Format – Links: Book Summary | and Download Book)
WND – January 30, 2018: If Turkey is not bluffing, U.S. troops in Manbij, Syria, could be under fire by week’s end, and NATO engulfed in the worst crisis in its history. As Erdogan’s foreign minister demanded concrete steps by the U.S. to end its support of the Kurds, who control the Syrian border with Turkey east of the Euphrates, all the way to Iraq. And so if the Turks attack Manbij, the U.S. will face a choice: Stand by our Kurdish allies and resist the Turks, or abandon the Kurds.
The United States will have to decide whether to stand with the Kurds and oppose Erdogan’s forces could mean a crackup of NATO and loss of U.S. bases inside Turkey, including the air base at Incirlik.
Turkey also sits astride the Dardanelles entrance to the Black Sea and NATO’s loss of Turkey would thus be a triumph for Vladimir Putin of Russia, who gave Ankara the green light to cleanse the Kurds from Afrin.
And the drama continues as China complained last week (January 20) that the USS Hopper, a guided missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Shoal, a reef in the South China Sea claimed by Beijing, though it is far closer to Luzon in the Philippines. The destroyer, according to China, was chased off by one of her frigates. If we continue to contest China’s territorial claims with U.S. warships, a clash is inevitable.
And the downgrade continues as U.S. relations with Cold War ally Pakistan are at rock bottom. In his first tweet of 2018, President Trump of America said that Pakistan was being a duplicitous and false friend. And that “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
And Saturday (January 27), an ambulance exploded in Kabul, killing 103 people and wounding 235. Monday, Islamic State militants attacked Afghan soldiers guarding a military academy in Kabul. With the fighting season two months off, U.S. troops will not soon be departing.
Patrick J. Buchanan noted, there are other wars – Somalia, Libya, Ukraine – where the U.S. is taking sides, sending arms, training troops, flying missions.
And said, like the Romans, we (i.e. the United States) have become an empire, committed to fight for scores of nations, with troops on every continent, and forces in combat operations of which the American people are only vaguely aware.
As in all empires, he said, power is passing to the generals.
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