By Barry Hastings
What bothers me the most about our federal spook infrastructure revolves around the uncountable (black) expenditur
es (many billions) we spend annually on 17/18 intelligence organizations. They are absolutely unaccountable to anyone outside a few “go-along” congressmen and senators who always say they can’t talk to constituents because intel is always stamped “TOP SECRET” or “MOST SECRET.”
Despite the black $$ billions expended to inform our government, we seem to be surprised at every development, everywhere. The Russians “surprised” us in Ukraine, and less than a year later, in Syria. Now they’ve surprised again, building a large military air base, threatening Poland and the Baltic states, in Belarus.
The Chinese “surprised” us with their island-building projects in the South China Sea, and with collapse of their once booming (now crashing) stock market. They also delivered a huge surprise during their annual military revue and parade, with a brand new ship-killer missile, the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, designed to destroy our super-aircraft carriers with one successful attack. Our enemies are active; we’re reactive (and, thanks to the GOP-controlled congress, slipping backward rapidly).
ISIL surprised us with the manner in which they’ve over-run major parts of nations our nation-builders hoped to re-build as democracies, leaving hundreds of thousands dead, millions more on the roads of mid-east and Europe as refugees. Half the Syrian population, 11 million people, are now refugees. More than 300,000 Syrians have died.
Latest reports from Afghanistan tell us ISIL is becoming more and more active in (all) dark corners of that untamed region. Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush claims, “one thing I know about my brother (‘Shrub’) is, he kept us safe.”
If you can call Shrub’s ham-handed handling of war in Afghanistan, and his attack on Iraq based entirely on lies to American citizens (saying nothing of lies to U.S. Officials, allies, and the whole population of planet earth), “keeping us safe,” he wouldn’t be lying. What the hell, it’s only seven, maybe eight thousand dead soldiers (and many hundreds of billions of $$).
As I’ve often said before, most of the Middle East was as docile as the troubled region gets when we invaded Iraq. One can hardly make the claim today. It all rests on the GOP and George W. Bush. To hear Republican presidential candidates on the stump today, they all plan to bring us more and more of the same old same old. It will be a very long time before old reliable allies trust the word of a Republican American president again. American voters, as well
Many Americans wonder why the Russians would get involved in Syria. They’re not “getting” involved there — they’ve been involved there for a long time, since the early 18th century when they took Azov on the Black Sea, but were expelled shortly by the Turks. Modern involvement is critical to Putin’s strategic defense an operational plans.
Secretary of State John Kerry recently claimed the Kremlin military buildup in Syria is as much about “self protection” as aggression. Many Russian military officials have long been embedded with the Syrian military as advisers and in training programs. They are crucial to operation of Syria’s Russian-built air defense systems.
The Russian naval base at Tartus, Syria, is critical to long-held Russian hopes for a seaport and ship repair facilities on the year-around open sea, first advanced by Peter the Great. He first tried to reach the Mediterranean, was frustrated by the Turks at Azov on the Black Sea, then commenced building his “window on the west,” St. Petersburg, on the Baltic Sea. The base at Tartus is Russia’s only naval base outside territories of the old Soviet state, and is an asset allowing them to repair ships operating in the Med, and beyond, without being recalled to the Sevastopol naval base on the Black Sea.
The Russian Navy’s Fifth Operational Squadron (the cold war Mediterranean Fleet) was re-constituted earlier this year, and is based at Tartus. Their largest cruisers cannot be dry docked for repairs at Tartus, but there is talk of expanding dock yard facilities. Syrians have long allowed Russians to station nuclear-armed vessels at Tartus. The base also figures strongly in Russian response to U.S. plans for a ballistic missile shield of Europe.
Russia also maintains one of her primary signals intel stations at Latakia, Syria, and considers it of equal importance with the Tartus naval base. They’ve recently completed work on a large fixed-wing and helicopter air base at Bassel al-Assad, from which they’re operating now.
The Bear is back, and means business.
