NATO commander says Russia and Syria are using migration as a weapon
Source: Christian Science Monitor
US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, Commander of the US European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe for NATO, said that the migrant crisis facing Europe is allowing terror elements into the continent undetected, with actions by the Islamic State (IS), Moscow, and Damascus pushing people out of Syria and Iraq and into the European system.
...
Breedlove also had strong words for Russia, saying that its recent actions have placed it in opposition to US and NATO goals in the region, and that the Syrian government and its ally are “deliberately weaponizing migration in an attempt to overwhelm European structures and break European resolve.”
“Europe faces a resurgent and aggressive Russia,” Breedlove said. “Russia has chosen to be an adversary and poses a long-term existential threat to the US and to our European allies and partners,” adding that “Russia seeks to fracture our unity and challenge our resolve.”
He went on to say that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with Russian military support, has been using weapons such as unguided aerial “barrel bombs” to indiscriminately terrorize Syrians and drive them out toward Europe, bringing with them dangerous elements hiding within the growing refugee population. “It is a weapon of terror, and it is a weapon to get people out of a location, on the road moving, somewhere else, and make them someone else's problems,” Breedlove said of Syrian and Russian reliance on haphazard IEDs. “[T]his sort of indiscriminate use of unguided, imprecise weaponry has no other value that I know of other than to terrorize and get people on the road.”
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/nato-commander-says-russia-syria-using-migration-weapon-164029534.html
The US is the latest voice to call out Russia for intentionally destabilizing Europe. Hardcore.
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2naSalit
(86,515 posts)Wow.
IthinkThereforeIAM
(3,076 posts)...eom!
McKim
(2,412 posts)The US started this mess by supporting the Syrian rebels. This was part of the plan by PNAC Neoliberals. The refugees are an unintended consequence but can be handily used by 1% interests as a weapon to drive down the cost of labor and devalue Arab lives. It fits in well with the MIC and Neoliberal Agenda.
I am working to help my city prepare for refugees by presenting my power point presentation on Syrian culture, our family history there and the refugee crisis. I call it "Welcome the Stranger".
Needless to say we were dismayed that Obama-Clinton created this crisis and now leaving it to others to clean up the mess. This is a tragedy.
what city are you helping to prepare for refugees?
nyabingi
(1,145 posts)in keeping Europe destabilized and looking to the US as its main partner - anything to keep Europe and Russia from working together in an equally beneficial manner. The US knows that the influx of asylum-seekers to Europe will create the same xenophobic reaction that the US experienced with its influx of poorly-paid Latino workers, and since the US only favors right-wing governments, this is seen as a good thing.
It is all about dominance, and NATO has been the tool the Americans used to keep Europe firmly in the anti-Russian camp and working at the behest of American interests. The rabidly anti-Russian countries (Poland, Estonia, Latvia, etc.) that were formerly part of the Soviet sphere don't really understand what the US has planned for them, but it's definitely not prosperity as equals.
You're right, the US was one of the main countries pushing for regime change, and we're primarily responsible for the misery these refugees have had to endure.
pampango
(24,692 posts)which hate the EU as much as Russia and Syria hate it. Mr. Assad and Mr. Putin are not stupid.
nyabingi
(1,145 posts)with the European countries and he's been stating that desire for literal years.
The idea that Putin is anti-Europe just shows the efficacy of the anti-Russian propaganda Americans are being fed daily.
Igel
(35,296 posts)By which they mean they want (R) to cooperate with them and help them achieve (D) goals. "Let's work together on common goals, and here are our common goals that you're going to adopt."
So all this talk about (D) enmity towards (R) must just be anti-Democratic propaganda, and the mock schadenfreude that many Democrats are showing at the disaster that the GOP is likely to be facing is just that--mock. Not even "mocking."
Putin is anti-Europe like the Palestinians are anti-Jewish. Both are fine with submissive and cooperative, but not so okay when it comes to having their goals and top-doggedness denied or even undermined.
nyabingi
(1,145 posts)and more economic integration, not one side saying you're going to do it one way or another. (D) and (R) are more concerned with getting themselves re-elected than trying to get the other side to adopt their agendas.
The rest of what you said is so bizarre that I won't even attempt to make sense of it.
pampango
(24,692 posts)
bemildred
(90,061 posts)He should consider using the same weapon against Syria and Russia, you destroy your country and send them a bunch of refugees too, see how that works.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)smh
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)got it.
I tend to think that was that dictator Assad does is the responsibility of Assad. Same for Putin. But that's just me.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)The current Assad took over Syria in 2000 when his father died.
Is this just yr automatic response to anything that goes wrong in the world, "The CIA did it"?
Pro tip: When telling someone to "know yr history", first know yr own history.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)The article does not come close to saying that the CIA installed Assad, as you said. It doesn't even say the CIA installed his father, Hafez al-Assad. The headline is clickbait for people who think the CIA has secretly engineered the whole world, but the article basically says only that the CIA was messing around a lot in the ME in the 1950s and that kind of sort of had something to do with the first Assad, Hafez al-Assad, getting into power. You're aware that Hafez al-Assad was much more of an ally to the Soviets than to the US, don't you?
Again, before telling someone to know their history, make sure you first do the same.
This might come as a shock to you, but the world can be pretty horrible even without the CIA orchestrating it. Assad & Putin are two anti-democratic, anti-human-rights dictators and that should not be apologized for by you or anybody.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)But nor is nato, cia, dod, or global corporations.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)Speaking of history, if you want to see something that makes the USA's "long track record" look like a post-it note, take a look at Russia, the USSR, the "regime change" and crushing of democracy in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and throughout the world...then look at what Assad has done to his how people in just the last 15 years since he got in. My god, where's the outrage as Assad watches the babies of his country literally wash up on the shore dead, and then start up a new bombing campaign to make a new batch of refugees to again wash up on the shore dead.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)"Start chaos then Steal All" gameplan. Doesn't matter whether the oligarchs are American, Russian, Saudi, Israeli, British ,Chinese, French, Italian , German, Canadian, Brazilian, Nigerian they all operate its the same goals in mind "steal as much as you can, anytime you can, anywhere you can steal from, from anyone".