https://twitter.com/BlogsofWar/status/352459986854625281
Apparently the Egyptian moderates and liberals have moved together with the military to begin a Coup.
Keep up with events HERE – Live Blog
Egyptian TV Says Morsi under House Arrest

Here we go, we knew this was going to happen.   Both Russia and Iran (strategic economic BFF’s) are allied with the Assad regime.   The U.N. has declared they will remain neutral on the matter.   The United States has come out in support of al-Qaeda (Islamist rebels).  So the chess pieces are all in place for another proxy war.

Supporting the U.S. benefitted Islamists you have Turkey, Egypt, Libya and more recently Jordan.   Supporting the other side (Assad) you have Hezbollah, Iran and Russia.

It’s Afghanistan all over again.   Giddy up 🙁

SYRIA – Iran has decided to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion, The Independent reported Sunday.

The British newspaper quoted pro-Iranian sources “which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security” as saying that Tehran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel. (more…)

This one we DID see coming.   Former U.N Ambassador Susan Rice will replace National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon, in the White House.   Susan Rice has been the visible face of controversy within the various Benghazi lies.   But Tom Donilon was as much connected to those lies as Rice. 

Tom Donilon and his pal Denis McDonough, were the actual ones making the decisions on the night of the Benghazi Libya terror attack(s).   Is Donilon leaving because that “stand down” order is about to come out?   [Although, honestly,  the guy does looks like he aged 20 years in the past 12 months]   

WASHINGTON DC – National security adviser Thomas E. Donilon will resign his post, White House officials said Wednesday, and will be replaced by U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice, a close confidant of President Obama with deep foreign policy experience who is disliked by Republicans but had been widely expected to move into the job. (more…)

Did NOT see this one coming.   We know her well, VERY WELL.

Samantha Power is Cass Sunstein’s wife.  She had a baby last year.  Before that she worked in the White House as a foreign policy advisor.   It was Samantha Power who created the “Obama Doctrine” – and framed the R2P (Responsibility To Protect) intervention rules for POTUS.

Samantha Power was the primary decision maker behind our interventionist entry into war in Libya.  It was her, along with Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton, who led the entire framework of our response to the Libyan uprising – and specifically our military engagement to protect al-Qaeda in Benghazi (Eastern Libya).    She is rabidly anti-Israel.  (we explain after AP article)

*Note*  Don’t forget that in Obama’s administration the U.N. Ambassador is a Cabinet Level position.   For all intents and purposes – equal to the Secretary of State.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House official says President Barack Obama will name former aide Samantha Power as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Power will replace Susan Rice, who will take over as Obama’s national security adviser. The official says Obama will announce both appointments from the White House Wednesday afternoon. (more…)

“I’m very worried about getting involved in a new war in Syria. People say ‘Assad is such a bad guy.’ He is. But on the other side we have al-Qaida and now Nusra. They say there are some pro-Western people and we’re going to vet them. Well, apparently we’ve got a Senator over there who got his picture taken with some kidnappers, so I don’t know how good a job we’re going to do vetting those who are going to get the arms.”

“So there’s two ironies you have to overcome if you want to get involved in a war in Syria. The first irony is you will be allied with al-Qaida. The second irony is most of the Christians are on the other side, so you may be arming Islamic rebels who may well be killing Christians.”

Hey, ya gotta give em’ props for honesty.  The Syrian “rebels” admit they are al-Qaeda, and the folks that met John McCain were only pitchmen – not commanders, and not representative of the real ideology behind uprising. 

(Via Time) . . . The reason for this night’s meeting, and indeed for the Libyans’ 10-day trip to southern Turkey and across the border into northern Syria, was to help the Libyans figure out how to get some of Libya’s vast and loose stockpiles of machine guns, artillery, ammunition and antiaircraft systems — leftovers amassed largely by snatching government stockpiles during their own successful military uprising against their late dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, and from supplies donated to the Libyan rebels by the oil-rich Gulf nation of Qatar — to Assad’s opponents. […]

The Syrian men who sat radially around the beige couch in the Turkish hotel were keen to get their hands on some of that batch of weapons. But first, the Libyans wanted to know who the Syrians were exactly and which rebel group each represented. (more…)

Republican John McCain is just as dangerous to our nation as his new BFF President Obama;  Perhaps more so….

In 2009 McCain went to Turkey in support of another BFF of Obama, Prime Minister Erdogan.   We tried to warn….. it fell on deaf ears. (more…)

Last month we brought you the story of John Heinz Kerry’s new strategy for diplomacy.  {It was part of our “stuck on stupid” series}  In essence Ketchup Boy’s primary strategy is to put Western Businesses in the Middle East, subsidize their efforts, and hope that the jihadists will take off their suicide vests in favor of picking up a spatula (taking a job).  

At the time Kerry said:

“[W]e’re not going to solve this challenge of terror and of extremism and of people finding an alternative if we’re not reaching out to people, talking to them, bringing them to the table and trying to work through major, perceived differences,”

[…]  “I believe we have to create a new paradigm, frankly, to deal with this.”

[…]  He repeated that the new paradigm combines economic diplomacy with “significant diplomatic outreach.”

Yesterday the initial report of him following this strategy came out: (more…)

Like much of President Downgrade’s tenure the Syrian fiasco is one of insufferable consequences resulting from a ‘lead from behind’ strategy.

The window of opportunity for the U.S. to take action passed two years ago when the actual Syrian people, the ordinary freedom citizens, were crying out for help.  Over the course of the two years that followed those ordinary voices have been overrun by extremists who jumped into the vacuum created by a lack of action.

Now Syria has devolved into a brutal Assad regime being fought by an even more brutal group of al-Qaeda extremists, while supported by Egypt and Muslim Brotherhood elements.   The ordinary freedom movement is hiding amid destroyed homes, broken glass, and blood stained curtains.

Syria is Obama’s Iran 2.0 deja-vu.   In Iran 2009, the “Green Movement” suffered a similar fate to the ordinary Syrian seeking freedom.   President Obama ignored them both when the window was open – In Iran the Islamic iron gates locked down the opening, in Syria the same is taking place. (more…)

It appears the “smartest administration ever”, has painted themselves into a corner – yet again.   The strikes from Israel are key indicators that Assad is going to fall, as al-Qaeda elements gain more and more control and weaponry.

Obama administration, via @nytimes, now says Obama's Syria "red line" was a gaffe. Huge implications here. http://t.co/TcZiKS0cd2

— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) May 5, 2013

WASHINGTON — Confronted with evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, President Obama now finds himself in a geopolitical box, his credibility at stake with frustratingly few good options. (NYT Link)