The Syrian Gog Machine

My Name is General Zod Gog

Does Obama even know what a spine is anymore? It's looking all Gog-y across the Middle East; it will be very interesting to see what a fully engaged West [meets East] front looks like. Ultimately all guns point to Israel, and that is when the Mercy games begin.


JPost.com:

The US and its allies concluded months ago that, since at least Christmas of last year, Syria’s nominal president Bashar Assad has tested chemical weapons intermittently on his own people.

The attacks have been small enough that the death toll from any single incident – never more than 40 – has blended in easily with your average day in Syria, where a two-year civil war between Assad and the diverse rebel groups fighting for his ouster has led to over 100,000 deaths.

US President Barack Obama vowed throughout the first year of the conflict to act if Assad dared to use chemical weapons, which are internationally banned from all battlefields. Obama’s attitude toward chemical weapons is similar to his stated position on nuclear weapons: Their proliferation and use sets a dangerous precedent and must be curtailed.

But with reports surfacing on Wednesday that just outside Damascus, in the suburb of Ghouta, Assad’s chemical weapons may have killed upward of 1,000 in a single attack, the US president’s idealist policy, his pragmatism and his distaste for Middle East wars may be approaching an important inflection point.

Obama’s reaction to the small chemical attacks was intentionally muted, and the policy more muted still. Three months after announcing that the US had indeed verified the use of sarin gas on multiple occasions in Syria through its own intelligence-gathering, the Obama administration is only now beginning to ship small arms and ammunition to Syria’s rebels.

Small arms will not shift the tide of the war, which has swayed in Assad’s favor since Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon committed fully to his cause. And since that policy was first announced in June, Assad has only been emboldened, writing off a political solution to the conflict and charging that “there are no exceptions to any means” to end the crisis – comments read widely as an allusion to his willingness to continue chemical attacks.

If confirmed, a large-scale chemical attack like Ghouta is unlikely to change the calculus of Obama or his national security team on how best to approach Syria. Nor will the Pentagon’s assessment change: US intervention would cost a fortune, upward of $1 billion a month, and there would be no guarantee of a favorable outcome. Securing Syria’s chemical weapons sites would require tens of thousands of troops – a fullscale invasion, which no one in Washington will seriously entertain.

Obama has publicly voiced concern over conducting strategic air strikes on Syrian air bases or weapons caches. They may be stocked with chemical weapons already, he says, and the US would then be complicit in releasing their toxins.

The only change might be on the diplomatic front. Western powers might successfully appeal to the better angels of Russian and Chinese leaders, and action at the UN Security Council may finally gain traction.

But ultimately Assad may have determined that the toxicity of his war is too much for the Americans to handle. If that is the case, do not expect Wednesday’s alleged incident in Ghouta to be the last gas attack of its kind.

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Back to the Pyramids

 The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel speak very vividly about Egypt's demise in the End of Days.
And all of a sudden - Egypt is falling?! [again]




BBC:

Clashes broke out at rival protests across the country overnight, with at least 16 pro-Morsi protesters killed at a demonstration at Cairo University.

The army has said it will shed its blood to defend Egypt against "any terrorist, radical or fool".

Mr Morsi insists he is the legitimate leader and will not give in to "violence and thuggery" by resigning.

In a defiant televised speech on Tuesday evening, he too said he would give his life to defend constitutional legitimacy, and blamed the unrest on corruption and remnants of the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak.

Calling for protesters to respect the rule of law, he urged the establishment of a committee of reconciliation as well as a charter of ethics for the media, and said he was prepared to meet all groups and individuals as part of a national dialogue process.

'Terrorists and fools' The army has given a deadline of around 16:30 local time (14:30 GMT) on Wednesday for the crisis to be dealt with.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page after Mr Morsi's speech was broadcast - under the title, "Final Hours" - it said: "We swear to God that we will sacrifice even our blood for Egypt and its people, to defend them against any terrorist, radical or fool."

Media reports say the army's plan includes the outline for new presidential elections, the suspension of the new constitution and the dissolution of parliament.

However one military source told Reuters those reports were not true, and that the deadline would mark the beginning of talks about what should be done next.

On Tuesday, Mr Morsi met the head of the armed forces, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for a second consecutive day. No details of the talks, which also included Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, were released.

Military sources earlier told the BBC the president's position was becoming "weaker" with every passing minute and suggested that, under the draft plan, he could be replaced by a council of cross-party civilians and technocrats ahead of new elections.

The president was put under further pressure by the resignation of six ministers from his government on Monday, including Foreign Minister Kamel Amr.

Mr Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Mubarak.

But anger has been growing against him and the Muslim Brotherhood - the party from which he comes. Protesters are angry at the lack of development in post-revolution Egypt - they accuse the Brotherhood of trying to protect its own interests and of pushing an Islamist agenda.

"This is a president threatening his own people. We don't consider him the president of Egypt," said Mohammed Abdelaziz, a leader of the Tamarod (Rebel) campaign, a rapidly growing anti-Morsi opposition movement.

However, Mr Morsi and the Brotherhood still have significant public support, and both sides have drawn huge numbers to rallies in recent days.

The Tamarod movement says more than 22 million people have signed a petition complaining that:

Security has not been restored since the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak The poor "have no place" in society The government has had to "beg" the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $4.8bn loan to help shore up the public finances There has been "no justice" for people killed by security forces during the uprising and at anti-government protests since then "No dignity is left" for Egyptians or their country The economy has "collapsed", with growth poor and inflation high Egypt is "following in the footsteps" of the US Profile: Tamarod protest movement Thousands gathered in Tahrir Square in central Cairo on Tuesday afternoon to demand Mr Morsi step down. There were outbreaks of violence in several parts of the capital, with casualties reported at hospitals in the north, south and centre of Cairo.

In the largest unrest, at least 16 people were killed and about 200 wounded at Cairo University in Giza. Eyewitness Mostafa Abdelnasser told AFP that Morsi supporters had come under attack from unidentified men carrying firearms.

Clashes were also reported in Alexandria, Egypt's second city, on Tuesday.

Crowds began gathering in Tahrir Square again on Wednesday morning, with numbers expected to rise throughout the day.

On Monday, eight people died as activists stormed and ransacked the Muslim Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters.

In the wake of the latest unrest, the UK Foreign Office has changed its travel advice for Egypt recommending against all but essential travel to the country except for resorts on the Red Sea in South Sinai and in the Red Sea governorate.

The instability has also hit global oil prices, sending US light crude above $100 a barrel for the first time since September last year, amid concerns supply routes through the Suez Canal could be affected.

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