syrian war

Syria: Who are The Rebels?

Posted on by Helena

War torn Syria remains a front for control. While the media coverage abounds with attention drawn to ‘the government forces’ and ‘Assad’, the opposition forces are rarely identified.   The opposition, rebels, are made up of four prominent groups:

Army of Islam – backed and funded by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, it is an organization operating in the Gaza Strip and closely affiliated with Hamas. They have been accused of carrying out attacks in Egypt including the bombing of a Coptic church in 2011. With a heavy presence in Ghouta, their intent is to create an Islamic state under Sharia. They have operated in conjunction with al-Nusra, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, and merged with Ahrar al-Shem in their design to eliminate Shiites and Alawites from Syria.

Targeting Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, they have engaged in most battles for control of Syria including Aleppo, Raqqa, Idlib, and now Ghouta. Making the war more complicated is the fact that they are not only opposed to Assad, but ISIL as well.

They have been shown using civilians in Ghouta as human shields, putting them in cages, and kidnapping and enslaving them. They have admitted to using chemical weapons, chlorine gas and other agents, against Kurdish forces and civilians. Infighting between rebel groups as also contributed to the chaos as power struggles wreak havoc.

 

Failaq al-Rahman – backed and funded by Qatar and Turkey, is a smaller organization that fights – everyone, including; ISIL, Assad, al-Nusra, and sometimes the Army of Islam.   They were originally organized by a Syrian Army captain who defected in 2012, and were considered a pet project of McCain and Obama under the auspice of the Free Syrian Army, or FSA before rebranding as Failaq al-Rahman. As such, their funding and support came from NATO and the US.

Their main stronghold was in Jobar where they were able to survive via an ancient cave system that runs beneath the city.  In the caves, they were safe from bombs, and could hide weapons and food.

In 2012, they were accused of hording supplies, food, and medicine in Aleppo from civilians in their effort to keep them docile and easily manipulated.   The MSM chose to instead report that there was no food or medicine in Aleppo in order to create a false message, ignoring the fact that the FSA was the stronghold at the time.

The eastern side of Jobar was home to mostly Christians before al-Rahman engaged in its terrorism within this city.

The two smaller rebel factions in Ghouta include the Levant Liberation Committee, and Ahrar al Sham. These groups have worked with ISIL and al-Nusra at various times and are also funded by the Saudis. Their size has greatly diminished due to in fighting and disagreements regarding fatwa, ceasefires, mergers and operations. Their goal is to rule Syria and they have offered those services in peace talks as an alternative to Assad or ISIL.

The UN continues to issue statements regarding the escalation of violence in Ghouta, and the humanitarian crisis that continues to be launched. Oddly, they never address Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Qatar in containing their rebel factions.   In calling for a ceasefire, they only identify ISIL, al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda as hostile.

In addition, while the UN praises neighboring countries that are housing all the Syrian refugees, they simultaneously chastise these same countries because the refugees are living in utter poverty without basic necessities including education and healthcare.  Jordan appears to be the UN target.  With roughly 11 million refugees or displaced Syrians, Jordan is currently housing about 630,000.  Turkey and Lebanon are housing over 5.6 million…

In the meantime, the US media is focusing on Kurdish forces in Syria fighting ISIS, when ISIS doesn’t appear to be in Ghouta, or their presence is enormously limited. Trump has stated that the goal of eliminating ISIS in Syria has been accomplished for the most part already. Regime change is not a goal. And the remaining factions that the government and Russia are fighting are these rebel groups backed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.   It would appear that Trump sees any intervention outside of ISIS as none of anyone’s business – let the Middle East destroy each other from within, it’s their battle.

Syria; Chemical Weapons?

Posted on by Helena

The Syrian war is such a universal mess it is completely unfathomable why. The list of countries bombing Syria includes: US, UK, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Belgium, Bahrain, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, and UAE.   And yet – with all that in play – ISIS, comprised of about 100,000 fighters by best guess, has actually – grown…

Five years later, a country is completely destroyed, but ISIS and al Qaeda seem to be doing just fine. What kind of military intelligence is conducting this massive catastrophe?   In WWII, Hitler’s army was comprised of over 18 million.   In the Gulf War against Iraq we fought against 650,000 troops and it lasted one month.

We have fake videos showing faked casualties, faked attacks, and apparently a complete inability to determine who is doing what where because we don’t seem to know who is bombing whom at any given time and so the rhetoric is US vs Assad.

Adding to the confusion, weapons are being sold indiscriminately to all related countries by both the US and Russia. It used to be that we could verify who was doing what via satellite imagery, but those too have been doctored to present false information.   So we turned to witnesses on the ground. But they have no factual bearing either as each side presents their propaganda witness.

Recently the US press has begun a campaign of parading previous Syrian victims as their source of information. Hillary capitalized on this propaganda method during her campaign, and the media have recently jumped osn the proverbial bandwagon creating chemical weapon victims. One, used to work for the Clinton Global Initiative… and the other one claims to have escaped after the August 2013 chemical weapon attack, only to show up in the US in September 2013 and start a Twitter account in English…

It’s interesting to note who is retweeted on this Twitter account of Mr. Kassem Eid. It would include Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch, a George Soros organization. There is Liz Sly of the Washington Post. The Daily Beast who has on it’s board Chelsea Clinton. The Syrian Network For Human Rights, a UK based organization that was an offshoot of the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, both one man shows located in the UK. And the very shadowy Eliot Higgins or Bellingcat also from the UK , a stay at home dad married to a Turkish woman who suddenly rose to fame as a weapons analyst…

The information being parlayed is always the same, makes statements of fact without any corroborating evidence, and is continually restated, reTweeted, rehashed by the mainstream media. The idea being if you say it enough, if multiple sources say the same thing – then it must be factual and evidence is no longer necessary.

Now we have Fox News using the fact checker of The Washington Post against Rice, and the mire is so thick we cannot possibly know what is fact or fiction. It is no different than asking Hillary who’s on first in Benghazi!   All it proves is that Rice is going down and she is the Democrat’s scapegoat.

We also now know that the riff between Bannon and Kushner was about Syria. Kushner won – and Syria was bombed without any verifiable evidence other than a statement made by the White Helmets, an organization created in and funded by the UK that ultimately shifted its funding to the US taxpayers. There are photos and videos linking them to complicity with al-Nusra. For their propaganda, they use the Aleppo Media Center to provide ‘pictures’ for release to US and UK media. The authenticity of these photos is questionable…at best.  And certainly completely and openly biased.

Tillerson blaming Russia for their failure to eliminate the chemical weapons in Syria is childish. The OPCW, a Norwegian organization, was tasked with the elimination. They work in cooperation with the UN. It’s latest news brief has declared that they are ‘investigating the claim of chemical weapons use in Syria’. Below is what the OPCW stated in 2016 with regard to the continued use of chemical weapons:

“At a time when the likelihood of states using chemical weapons has become distant, non-state actors – in Syria and Iraq – have not only sought to acquire such weapons, but have also used them. What this means is that chemical terrorism is no longer a theoretical proposition or even imminent threat, but a stark reality. It is also a reality that could affect many more of us across the globe over coming years as foreign fighters return to their homelands with experiences gained in Syria and Iraq.”

There are six countries known to house stashes of chemical weapons: US, Russia, Egypt, Israel, North Korea and South Sudan. However, what the OPCW acknowledges is that ‘non-state actors’, as in terrorists, have stockpiles that cannot be contained.  Recklessness was the Democrat and Republican war hawks agenda, The People are more concerned about the Saudi’s than Assad where Sharia Law, beheadings, human rights violations, war mongering in Yemen, ethnic cleansing, and genocide are all tolerated for some reason… could it be The Swamp back-scratching???

UN – A Corrupted Waste; Rebuilding Syria – Trillions in the Making

Posted on by Helena

The UN is demanding $4.63billion in additional aid to help Syrians recover from their devastation, and to subsidize countries who are hosting Syrians. Of course the demand for money comes with a threat, if it is not forthcoming then there will be dire consequences not just for Syrians, but for all refugees and for the host countries…

I don’t know about you, but when someone demands money under the strong arm of a threat, it sounds more like ‘blackmail’.   But it is always the aftermath of an attempted coup gone seriously awry: Bomb a country, murder its people, leave it in disastrous rubble, no infrastructure, and then demand money to fix said country from the same people who bombed it.

So now, after spending trillions on a war We The People and They The People never wanted, depleting our budget, our economy, and our livelihoods, we are being told we have to repair said country out of our tax dollars. And if we don’t? We are being threatened by the very agency that did absolutely nothing to mitigate or stop the war despite their claim that they are a success in ‘bringing peace to the world’ – The United Nations.

After 3 years of useless bombing by the US and EU, Russia, Iraq and the Syrian government have successfully put a truce and end to the fighting in place. A truce between the CIA backed and Pentagon backed rebels vs. the Syrian government that we desperately fought to displace in a failed coup.  A sickening deplorable crime.

So why is the UN even asking for money? What have they done that warrants them – anything?

The UN, lays claim to five major successes since their inception in 1945: The eradication of smallpox, the promotion of arms control, helping to save the lives of 9 million children, protecting the ozone, and saving the pyramids.

WOW! Imagine if a corporation laid claim to similar feats after 71 years while riddled in mismanagement, corruption, fraud, sexual molestation, and theft. According to it’s audited 181 page financials for 2014, they devoted 3 entire pages to internal fraud cases, and nearly 30 pages to the status of audit recommendations from 2013.  I guess that would deplete their $5.3 billion Development Budget…keeping their records straight.

With assets totaling about $6.5 billion on liabilities of under $1.9billion, and annual revenue for the ‘Development Program’ at roughly $5 billion, about 6% of their expenses actually went towards grants and ‘other transfers’, while the remainder of expenses, $5billion were utilized to maintain the UN staff, consultants, and office, resulting in a deficit of about $330million.

Impressive?  Hardly!

The Development Program is only one agency/subsidiary of the UN and names four inherent duties: poverty reduction, sustainable development, peacebuilding and climate and disaster resilience. They don’t actually spend their budget to do anything other than to ask for more money for everyone else to do – something.

I’d say they had failed on all fronts – massively. In addition, as a ‘charitable’ organization, why do they need to hold $6.5 billion in cash and investments? But then they do provide annual leave, pensions, full medical benefits during and post employment, home-leave benefits, termination benefits, repatriation grants and ‘other lump sum payments’.

Its more perverse failures have included Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Congo, Sri Lanka and Haiti. They are so bloated that they have now adopted ‘advisory committees for ‘indigenous people’ for ‘sustainable forest management’, and ‘coordinating efforts of NGO’s’ (that would include Soros Open Society), as well as promoting abortions, vaccination overseers, agriculture overseers, education overseers, World Bank, WHO, and a host of agencies that ‘DO’ nothing but watch over those who are ‘DOING’ utilizing revenue from alternate sources.

In other words, they are The Middle Man taking a hefty cut to bully more money from countries in order for them to do the hard work.

And now they are demanding $4.63billion for Syrian people and for subsidies for host countries, aka, Germany, Sweden, and Turkey. Will the money go towards rebuilding Syria? No. That is a completely separate BILL which is estimated to reach between $180 and $200 billion, not including loss of economic wealth, and the decades it will take to re-emerge as a viable economy – after a failed coup that ushered in ISIS, displaced millions, and murdered hundreds of thousands – in the name of PEACE.

Sickening.

Syria – Sick of Lies

Posted on by Helena

So the US and Russia have called for a Syrian cease-fire, but not everyone is going to comply – including most of the ‘bad guys’; ISIS, al-Nusra, and Turkey.

If I was part of the coalition sitting around ‘not’ firing and ISIS shelled my location, I think it is a fair assumption that I’d get my booty in gear and shell back! The choice – die or fight. Hmmm.

What a strange solution to think that the bad guys will be nice and wait until the talks are over in which the coalition agrees to bond together to fight – an agreed upon definition of who the bad guys are. And right now, Turkey has joined the ranks of the bad guys with indiscriminate shelling. Of course Saudi Arabia is also using the vast stash of weapons sold to them by the US and UK and France to bomb whomever they please in Syria as well.

What the heck good is a cease fire if only the good guys comply? It’s like telling all the WWII allies to stop doing any bombing while the Nazi’s gain ground and create Holocaust No. II!!  Imagine the Generals on the field?

The US has refused to give Russia coordinates of it’s ‘good guys’ because they think doing so will put them at risk. In the meantime there are now so many factions fighting in Syria, no one is sure who is who as every month or so another faction rises up from the dust. And as everyone might notice, ISIS continues to spread – we are supposedly now bombing Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Sudan – all in the fight against ISIS, and still the media would have us believe that Russia and China are the real bad guys… All of Europe is at high risk for ISIS attacks, the US is ‘ready’, and still we can not agree that this is even a pressing issue.

I just read an article about the woman, who as a girl in Vietnam suffered horrific napalm burns to most of her body, is teaching others the value of forgiveness.  During the war, her picture was plastered all over the magazine covers as she ran down the middle of the street naked, her clothes burned from her body, screaming in agony. She is grown now, but her life has been agonizing in that her wounds never healed and she has excruciating pain every day. This is what war is! It is excruciating pain.

We didn’t win Vietnam. We haven’t won our wars in a long time. And while arguments continue that we have a moral obligation to intercede, I am reminded of my father. Head of Defense Intelligence in Europe, a WWII veteran who headed a tank battalion, a lover of horses and art and me, he witnessed firsthand the daily trauma of war and the only way he could deal with it was to push it down so deep into his psyche that it would hopefully never surface – ever.

Meddling in countries that have a completely different culture than our own has proven catastrophic. Trying to make them into something they never can or want to be is – catastrophic. It is reminiscent of the missionaries who tried over and over to convert the ethnic tribes in Africa and South America to conversion, only to be slaughtered, their children raped, and their wives sliced into pieces. As gruesome as this sounds, this is the reality. And the Middle East is no different. It took Gaddafi to hold it together, as horrific as he was, it took Saddam to hold it together as disgusting as it was, because they understood the psyche of their countrymen.

We freaking goofed BIG TIME.

North Korea? China? Brazil? Leave them to their own ways and focus on helping people escape rather than annihilating countries and their populations. While ISIS continues to grow and expand, the idiocy of our bombing campaign is leaving most veterans crazed with wonder. Six drone strikes take out four trucks, seven drone strikes hit a building, eleven drone strikes cratered a ‘target’… Every veteran of military heritage knows the ridiculousness of these claims of ‘fighting the enemy’. When we can’t even agree on WHO IS THE ENEMY.

Everyone is sick of the lies. Everyone is sick of hearing military commanders who either don’t care, or who follow White House orders to circumvent the targets, spray worthless bombs, and blame other countries for indiscriminate attempts to rid this world of the enemy!

WWII – number of bombs dropped by the allies – 3.4 million tons.

Syria – number of bombs dropped – maybe 5,000 – or less.

It is NOT WORKING. Either just stop – or ramp up and create undergrounds for the civilians to find safety.

Syria – End Times Prophesy?

Posted on by Helena

Ezekial’s prophesy of end times can become obsessive. Over the centuries, as wars erupted and evil men rose to power, they were thought to be the signal that we had entered into the end times prophesy. Today is no different. But we need to be careful, then and now, in pointing a gnarly finger at the supposed perpetrators when we simply don’t know for sure.

Scholars are divided over interpretations of land and peoples and who exactly God has said through Ezekial will be the ones responsible for bringing about end times. References to Ethiopia and Persia are fairly direct encompassing nearly all of the middle east, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, and a fair portion of northern and eastern Africa. But division reigns when defining Phut, Gomer, Meshech, Tubal, Rosh and Beth-togarmah. Some scholars put these places in Turkey, others claim they were all ancient Iranians, and still others argue that they include Ukraine and Russia as reference to the ‘northern parts’, when in fact Turkey was the area north of Israel.

Why is this important? Because when looking to the people that the Bible prophesies will bring about end times, it is important to know how that relates to current warring.

At issue is the fact that multiple times in history, from the Mongols to the Turks and Ottoman Empire, to even Hitler, these people have been said to belong to ‘end times’ prophesy. With Syria now at the forefront, parallels have been made. One such parallel is the destruction of Damascus. The Bible prophesy declares that its ruin will be so complete that it will cease to be a city at all.

Isaiah 17:1-3 reads, “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid. The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

The cities of Aroer? The literal Hebrew translation of Aroer is ‘ruin’. There were three cities with this name and all have been in ruin for centuries.  Therefore some argue that the prophesy has already come to be, while others argue that Aroer refers to other ‘ruins’ that we are experiencing today.  And while Damascus lies in rubble, it is still thriving albeit precariously. As such, the fate of Damascus is quite clear in the Bible and thus represents a tipping point.

Russia joined the fight against ISIS in Syria with the blessing of all countries. But their stated targets have included rebel factions as well. There are four rebel groups; two are Nusra Front groups affiliated with al Qaeda, the third is backed by the Saudi’s, the East Gouta Council, and the fourth is backed by the US, the Southern Front. Of course, rebels are fighting each other, fighting the Syrian government, fighting Iran, fighting ISIS, fighting, well, just about everyone.

The US has a twofold agenda, to topple the Syrian government and ISIS. Which is probably why neither agendas have succeeded given in a war it is always a good idea to ‘pick a side’, one side, and stick with it!   Initially, al Nusra was trained and armed by the US until it was pointed out that they were actually al Qaeda. Oops.

Why would Russia bomb and destroy targets that were not ISIS? It’s military 101. To eliminate the enemy. The enemy is anyone who poses a risk to their ally, Assad. Whether you agree with this alliance or not, Russia has been very vocal from the beginning, there was no mistaking with whom their loyalties lay.  This was not a secret…Therefore, the defeat of ISIS, al Qaeda and the rebels is the focus.

The US military tactics have not been effective against their targets; ISIS and Assad. Therefore, it makes more sense to sit back, let Russia clean up the mess and deal with Assad – later. If that is in fact even the true agenda…

Let’s not forget the open mic blunder between Medvedev and Obama in 2012. Agendas are behind closed doors, what the president says and what he does have no common denominator. Trying to discern the truth, the facts, is akin to putting together a puzzle of 1000 pieces when some of the pieces are missing, others are from a completely different puzzle, and still others have been cut to no longer fit.

In the meantime, we stand to set in motion the fall of Damascus and thus end times prophesy.

What may catapult the entire scenario is an ‘accidental’ bomb hitting the Russian military by the US, or the US military by Russia. That is most likely what the media is waiting for, drooling with anticipation as shadows percolate a WWIII scenario nudging with just the right amount of provocation and thus enabling Obama a stay of execution so as to remain in office for an indefinite period while elections are tabled. AND setting in motion a war that no one wants. No one believes in. And no one supports.

In the meantime, we will continue to create a villain, vilify and condemn as though we were God, and act in a manner that is abhorrent in pushing towards a re-alignment of nations and a catastrophe that will definitely take millions of lives.

But maybe, just maybe, that is – the agenda.

Refugees – Migrants? What Did You Expect?

Posted on by Helena

I read the headlines nearly every day, …The Saudi Led Coalition in Yemen... We read, and we accept the words, but then –

What is a ‘coalition’? I looked it up: Merriam Webster – ‘The action or process of joining together with others for a common purpose”. It is used in politics to suggest the union of two or more political parties in a joint belief. It is used in economics to define the coming together of potentially two competing companies in a shared voice. It is a coming together in a good way – it comes from the Latin word meaning ‘to grow together’.

In other words, until recently, it’s usage has had a much higher integrity than it’s current one, ie, joining forces to annihilate a country and its people.

As in Syria. As in Yemen.

Migrants and refugees flocking to Europe in the millions, mostly from Syria, or countries that temporarily housed the Syrians and don’t want them any longer. And where do you suppose the Yemeni’s will go when our ‘coalition’ is done bombing their country? A lesson never learned, is an idiot without a soul. Enter David Cameron.

Cameron made the absurd statement that ‘the refugee crisis in Syria is the fault of Assad and ISIS’. The epitome of refusal to accept ownership, the arrogance of blame. If you destroy a country, where do you think the people will go? The Syrian ‘war’ was created when a coalition of countries decided they wanted to oust the current regime, and their efforts backfired. As a result, they armed the enemy and allowed the country to fall into the hands of ISIS.

As in the most basic of relationships, marriage, if you refuse to accept responsibility for your action(s), then they will continue unabated and the fixing will never occur. Pointing a blame finger Mr. Cameron only serves to escalate further implosion within every country the ‘coalition’ decides would be better under their tutorial.

I believe the vast majority of citizens know this, embrace this and accept this, it is only the bombastion of governments that would like to pretend that we the people are too stupid to get it! I am tired of the government acting as though we are all children under their thumbs, too ignorant to understand basic humanity and basic compassion and basic life principles.

The Saudi’s started a war with Yemen for one reason, to control the country. End of story. We started a war with Syria for one reason, to control the country. That’s really – it, the entire story. Europe bemoans the fact that the migrant/refugee crisis is out of control and yet doesn’t realize it is just beginning. Yemeni’s are only trickling, but they have no more food, no water, they will begin mass exodus – it is just a matter of time.

The UK steps up to the plate after refusing refugees, and announces it will begrudgingly accept 4,000. That’s 4,000 out of hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions soon. To date, the UK has taken in a grand total of 216. Hand picked. Yeehaw Mr. Cameron!  By comparison, Germany has taken in close to a million. Of course if McCain had had his way, there would be far less because we would have simply annihilated them with bombs. Population control according to the intellectuals, as in Mr. Gates.

We can sit around and break down the blame, argue the blame and get all arrogant about the blame. Or we can take ownership and realize that we have created a crisis of astronomical proportions that has a trickle down potential of allowing ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists to freely enter our countries. We did this. The consequences are ours. But in not even attempting to learn from this lesson, we ‘coalesce’ with the Saudi’s in bombing another country to complete rubble. If I were a citizen of the Middle East right now, I’d be watching my borders, my skies, my back, because there are no allies, no friends, no covenant at all.

Syria – Refugees or Terrorists?

Posted on by Helena

So the news story says that as a result of the US destroying Syria to rubble, a bunch of asylum seekers are flocking the US.   Flocking as in the numbers from Mexico?  Hardly.  Flocking as in an historical comparison.

What exactly do you expect when you demolish an entire country? Applause?

To make matters worse, the US government is claiming they can’t guarantee that in allowing asylum and immigration, a lot of terrorists won’t inadvertently be admitted as well because they, the US, don’t know how to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

I had to crack my neck.

By stating this, isn’t it an invitation?

“Gee guys, come on in and let us make it perfectly clear that if you are an evil jihadist, we will still let you in…because we think you are just lost.” Who at the Pentagon drafts these reports for the media? I can tell you this, as the daughter of a former intelligence officer, this is a bunch of ptui.

I recently had the privilege of reading some of the columns of former Army Colonel, Sellin, who was fired for making a mockery of the political correctness chaos of Afghanistan. While we want to support the military hero’s, we also need to weed the weeds. And it would appear, a heavy dose of Monsanto’s Glyphosate Herbicide might be just what the military needs to weed the terrorists from the good guys.

Personally, I thought Colonel Sellin’s rant was rather funny. Sometimes, it is not disrespectful to make fun of the military when the Truth is the weapon of choice. Remember when it was okay to tell jokes about Polish people, Jews, we were constantly making fun of the stupid blond women, the razor sharp brunettes, and even dogs and cats. Nowadays you can’t say diddly squat unless it is about yourself and even then you can be called out for racism, being opinionated, being prejudice etc… Yawn, I digress.

How many refugees are there in Syria as a result of the ‘bomb em all’ tactic decried by McCain? NINE million! Well that worked really well! Now ISIS, Al Nusra, Al Qaeda (who are they anymore), Al Shabob, el nino, el fariqua – I made those up, hello, own Syria. Where were all the Syrians supposed to go after we reduced their country to rubble? Did anyone consider that minor detail? Or is Syria soon to become the new moon landscape – plant a flag and it belongs to us ’cause there is no one left to defend it and when we decide to get real, we’ll annihilate ISIS and the country will become a US Federation?

An interesting distinction the government likes to make is that there are asylum seekers and refugees, each granted different rights and status. And while the numbers aren’t huge compared to the total 9 million, 2000 refugees and 1500 asylum seekers can still make a lot of bombs.

So while Syria is in ruins, Yemen is near ruins, Libya is approaching ruin, Sudan is deadly, Iran is nuclear, Israel is pissed, Brazil is mired in feces, and fires are raging in Alaska, Hillary announces her two prime objectives: 1) universal pre-kindergarten and 2) clean energy. Of course she had to make the distinction that each goal will require an entire term to complete, a rather arrogant assumption given she hasn’t even made a dent in the current standings and yet she is counting on two terms…

As of March this year, the US agreed to accept up to 70,000 refugees from around the world, 33,000 spots reserved for the Middle East and Asia. The process takes 18-24 months and the refugees typically come from camps in Jordan which houses upwards of 4 million of the Syrians. And while you might remember vaguely that the original villain was the President, Bashir Assad, the new villains are various affiliated groups within the dome of ISIS. And while the number of ISIS members killed in the last few years rattles between 800 and a couple thousand, the number of civilians killed is estimated at 220,000.

We are losing. Why? Because we aren’t trying to win. Just ask Hillary…