The Syrian Proxy War: A World War III-esque Summary

Via sauced07

Even before any major world powers were willing to go public (so to speak) with their involvement in Syria’s five-year, bloody civil war, it was difficult to keep track of the myriad rebel factions, militant groups, and jihadists battling the Assad regime for control of the country.

In a testament to just how confusing (not to mention terrifying) the situation had become by the time Iran began to mull asking the Russians for help, in April, 18,000 civilians ended up trapped in the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus where al-Nusra, ISIS, Hamas, the FSA, and the Assad regime were all fighting each other simultaneously in what UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon called “the worst circle of hell.”

More @ Zero Hedge

“America has forgotten about us”: Former allies in Vietnam flee persecution

Via David

During the Vietnam War, Kanh Kpa’s indigenous Montagnard relatives fought alongside US Army Special Forces in Vietnam’s remote Central Highlands, where the mostly Christian tribesmen gained a reputation as fierce and loyal allies.

But after the war, the ethnic and religious minority Montagnards, or “mountain people,” long at odds with the Vietnamese government, paid a steep price. Some were imprisoned, others fled into jungles or suffered years of ethnic discrimination and religious repression, human rights groups say.

Today Kpa is living in hiding in a dingy house on the outskirts of Bangkok, among a wave of hundreds of Montagnards who fled to Thailand and Cambodia in the last year claiming religious persecution — the latest chapter of a troubled history.

Kpa said local Vietnamese authorities last year harassed and detained him and others. But while he’s pinning his hopes on getting to the United States, so far he and other asylum seekers among the former US tribal allies are fighting an uphill battle for both refugee status and international attention to their plight.

More @ Salon

No US airstrikes in Syria since Russia deployed S-400 systems & US SF Deployed

Via sauced07

 

The US is set to deploy an expeditionary targeting force to help Iraq put additional pressure on Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL), Defense Secretary Ash Carter said. The special forces will be positioned to conduct unilateral operations into Syria.

"These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders," Carter told the House Armed Services Committee in prepared remarks, using an abbreviation for Islamic State.

"That creates a virtuous cycle of better intelligence, which generates more targets, more raids, and more momentum," he added.

More @ RT

Brave women and cowardly men

Via David

  

Daily Kos: Trump = Hitler (S/B Obama = Stalin/Lenin)

Via Ryan

 

Liberals are insane.  There is no other explanation

Sixty million people died in World War II, but fascism Communism won. It didn’t win on the battlefield. It didn’t win right away. It won because the same fears, the same greed, the same hatred that fueled its growth in the first part of the twentieth century never went away. The symbols of fascism became anathema, but the causes … went deep. And gradually, slowly, one step at a time, all those vices became first tolerated, then treated as virtues, and then as the only acceptable view.

More @ Daily KOS