This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com:

• Turkey continues shelling Syrian military positions
• Turkey's Erdogan delivers harsh speech and expands rules of engagement
• UN Security Council issues a watered-down statement on Syria
• Turkey may have captured the killers of U.S. envoy Chris Stevens
• Aron Nimzovich: 'Why must I lose to this IDIOT?'
• Spain's Rajoy continues to play games with bailout

Turkey continues shelling Syrian military positions

In a sharp escalation of tensions between Turkey and Syria, the Turkish military shelling into Syria that began on Wednesday continued into Thursday, as retaliatory strikes for the killing of a mother and her three daughters and another woman by Syrian mortars that landed in Turkey. Turkey's targets were Syrian military positions in Syria, resulting in the deaths of an unknown number of Syrian soldiers. Turkey has stopped shelling, but is continuing to deploy tanks and anti aircraft missiles in Akcakale, the town where the five Turkish citizens were killed on Wednesday. Zaman (Istanbul)

Turkey's Erdogan delivers harsh speech and expands rules of engagement

Turkey's Parliament on Thursday gave authority to the government to deploy troops in Syria or other countries if an when it finds such an act necessary for national security. Once again, this is a sharp escalation, since it makes it possible, with no further authorization, for prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to order a military invasion of Syria. This means that at the next provocation, Erdogan won't have any excuse for hesitating. 

On Thursday, Erdogan gave a harsh speech, and contradicted Syria's claim that Syria's shelling inside Turkey was an "accident":

We have no intention of starting a war with Syria. 

We as Turkey just want peace and security in our region. We could never be interested in something like starting a war. The consequences of war are plain to see in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the Turkish Republic is a state capable of defending its citizens and borders. Nobody should try and test our determination on this subject.

He said that there have been many similar incidents in the past, though this is the first with five casualties.

Even today, we had a shell landing in Hatay city Altinozu district.

An accident can be called "an accident" once, twice, three times, but four, five six times, but how is this an accident, when it happens eight times?

Hurriyet (Ankara) and Al-Arabiya

UN Security Council issues a watered-down statement on Syria

As usual, the Russians, who are as guilty as Syria's president Bashar al-Assad for the violence going on in Syria, opposed any statement in the United Nations Security Council that condemned Syria. It's amazing that anything was accomplished at all, but the UNSC did issue a watered-down statement: 

The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the shelling by the Syrian armed forces of the Turkish town of Akcakale, which resulted in the deaths of five civilians, all of whom were women and children, as well as a number of injuries. The members of the Security Council expressed their sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government and people of Turkey.

The members of the Security Council underscored that this incident highlighted the grave impact the crisis in Syria has on the security of its neighbours and on regional peace and stability. The members of the Council demanded that such violations of international law stop immediately and are not repeated. The members of the Security Council called on the Syrian Government to fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours.

The members of the Security Council called for restraint.

The Russians insisted on removing a sentence in the original draft calling the Syrian attack "a serious threat to international peace and security." The compromise text referred instead to concerns as to the impact of the crisis in Syria on "the security of its neighbors and on regional peace and stability." United Nations and Reuters

Turkey may have captured the killers of U.S. envoy Chris Stevens

The alleged killers of U.S. envoy Chris Stevens in Benghazi, Libya, have been detained by Turkey on Wednesday, according to unconfirmed reports. Two Tunisian citizens accused of the murder were apprehended on Wednesday evening by police at Istanbul Atatürk Airport while trying to enter Turkey with fake passports. They have been taken to the Istanbul Police Department for questioning. Hurriyet

Aron Nimzovich: 'Why must I lose to this IDIOT?'

In 1925 in Baden-Baden Germany, chess grandmaster Aron Nimzovich was playing a crucial game with grandmaster Friedrich Saemisch, a game that would decide first place. Nimzovich was the superior chess player, but he lost to Saemisch, and as he was about to be checkmated, he got up from the table and yelled, "Why must I lose to this IDIOT?" 

That was the attitude that I saw reflected in President Obama's sullen, resentful face during the Wednesday evening debate. I interpreted Obama's attitude to his Gen-X contempt of Boomers. "These Boomers are jackasses, so why should I have to debate this lying, arrogant crook who's a danger to the world?"

I'm pretty sure that President Obama was thinking words like "liar," "crook," and "dangerous," because I watched MSNBC for a while after the debate and saw these so-called newsmen use these and similar news as they spewed out vitriol as if they were a bunch of teenage girls.

As I've written several times in the past, I consider President Obama's failures, including his failure in Wednesday's debate, to be the fault of his hatred of Boomers. (From 2007: "Barack Obama to Boomers: Drop dead!") No one can be successful for long if all his policies are based on hatred of one-third of the population. 

Spain's Rajoy continues to play games with bailout

European officials are in a tizzy because Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy refuses to make an official request for a bailout, although everyone knows that it can't be avoided. There have been reports that Rajoy was finally going to seek a bailout this weekend. Here was his response: 

If there is some agency, or someone, who says that this weekend we are going to ask for a bailout, as they say, there are two possibilities: that this agency is right and has better information than I do, which is possible, or that is not the case, which may also be possible.

Euro Intelligence

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