John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY THE SAKER IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“There Is an Easy and Cheap Way for Russia to Secure Syrian Airspace -- Without the S-300
“Russia's empty talk of possible S-300s for Syria was a mayor fiasco but the cheapest and most realistic way of securing Syria's skies was always by spamming many more short-range Pantsirs”
To my mind, there is a big and unwelcome note of back-pedaling propaganda here.
Some of the tone is quite objectionable actually.
Just as was the tone of the official Russian statements after the Israeli raid.
But it is difficult to understand just what game is being played. We have, for example, never clearly been told what the targets of Israel’s aggression were. Iranian? Syrian?
Just as our corporate press deliberately confused stories of the “provocation.”
The missiles fired were said to be Iranian and were said to have been fired first. This, of course, is the official Israeli version of events, something never to be trusted from a government which calls the mass ambush killing of civilians in Gaza “restraint’ and the work of “the world’s most moral army.”
That initial firing of missiles, as an act by Iran, never made sense because the Iranians would have no reason to do that, have nothing to gain, and frankly, the Iranians are just cleverer than that.
But in the press-trained minds of many in the West, functioning much like Pavlov’s dogs, once you mention “Iran,” anything unpleasant is accepted automatically. Just as once you mention “Israel,” anything unpleasant could not possibly be the case.
That state of public awareness is of course ridiculous, but that is the Twilight Zone world of foreign affairs today that has been carefully constructed by a hyper-aggressive American government, its disinformation agencies, and its press, always pretending to journalism while acting as cheer leaders.
Orwell’s words on the nature of big brother’s state, Oceania - which was actually intended as a dark, fierce parody of Stalin’s Soviet Union – apply exactly, "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength."
Other stories about the missile attack, which seemed more credible, said they were Syrian missiles, and were fired in response to Israel’s attack. Some of these stories also asserted that by that missile-firing response, now Syria had laid down a new set of rules for Israel. Who knows? Israel hasn’t confirmed anything about the responding missiles or their targets.
There was speculation about one of the Israeli targets actually being a senior Iranian military commander, but who knows? We have no good information.
Just as we have no good information on the relations between Iran and Russia inside Syria. Are they closely coordinating their efforts? Do they disagree on some matters? Are they even agreed on goals or are they each there because they invited to help Syria while each having its own reasons for doing so?
The nature of the situation and the nature of the threat Israel represents are what should determine the military hardware to be employed.
But the author of the article makes only some quasi-technical arguments about this or that air-defense system, but not about what best suits the situation in Syria, which, of course, he also may not completely understand.
The bottom line considerations in the whole matter, though, are pretty straightforward.
Syria has a right, and under international law, to protect itself from attack by Israel or anyone else.
Russia is an ally of Syria, one benefiting from important military bases and one who has invested a fair amount of treasure, and some blood, into helping it eliminate the phony-jihadi mercenaries dumped into the country by outsiders in an effort to destroy its integrity.
Those outsiders are primarily America, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France, and originally Turkey.
When you say Saudi Arabia these days, you are talking about a bizarre new associate of Israel’s, now really a close secret ally, owing to efforts taken out of fear of American invasion after 9/11, both of them concerned with protecting privileged positions in the region.
When you speak of the governments of America, Britain, and France, you are talking about governments under almost unbelievable influence of lobbies working for Israel’s benefit.
So, Israel is at the very center of the entire situation, even though in our press you would never know that. And Israel’s bloody-minded leader was talking to Putin just before the attack. About what, we’ll likely never know.
Of course, when someone gets “permission” to attack, defense mechanisms become somewhat irrelevant.
AFTERWORD
We have this:
https://russia-insider.com/en/there-easy-and-cheap-way-russia-secure-syrian-airspace-without-s-300/ri23489
and this:
https://www.activistpost.com/2018/05/russias-relationship-with-israel-and-the-s-300-controversy.html
plus a lot of confusion.
