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Obama and Turkey PM Erdogan hold bizarre press conference


Prime Minister Erdogan and President Obama on Thursday (Reuters)

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President BarackObama held a joint news conference in Washington on Thursday, and saidthe predictable things about Syria — that Syria’s president Basharal-Assad must go, that Syria must be free, that we’ll continue topressure the al-Assad regime, blah, blah, blah. Erdogan haspreviously said that when he met with Obama he would provide proofthat the al-Assad regime had used chemical weapons, and Obama haspreviously said that use of chemical weapons was a “red line” and aSyria. However, Obama said the predictable things, that we’re notreally, really, really sure that chemical weapons were used, and thatno military action was planned, blah, blah, blah.

The situation in Syria has been a major diplomatic victory forRussia’s president Vladimir Putin. Putin is supporting al-Assad’sruthless massacre of innocent women and children, and isexpressing open contempt for Western pleas not to supply S-300surface to air missiles to Syria, to allow al-Assad to defendagainst Western air strikes against his stores of weapons that heuses in his bloody attacks on innocent civilians.

There’s a big irony to the Syria situation, in that it’s a kind ofun-Iraq. President George Bush was blamed for military action in Iraqin 2003, and President Barack Obama decided that the “lesson learned”is that the U.S. should not get involved in foreign wars. More andmore each day, it appears that if things continue to get worse andworse in Syria each day, then the West in general and the Obamaadministration in particular are going to be blamed. It’s very hardto argue that Syria would be worse off today if the West hadintervened right at the beginning, and each day that passes makesal-Assad stronger and more well-armed, thanks to Russia and Iran. So,Bush is blamed for intervening in Iraq, and Obama may well be blamedfor NOT intervening in Syria. Such are the problems of the UnitedStates, the policeman of the world.

Having said that, it’s worthwhile noting that things could change atany time. We’ve reported in the past about unconfirmed reports thatthe U.S., Turkey, Jordan and Israel are making preparations formilitary intervention in Syria. The horrific actions by violentpsychopath Bashar al-Assad are causing pressure to increase on theWest to do something – anything – to stop the carnage, a decisioncould be announced at any time. Zaman (Istanbul) and Jamestown

Nigeria’s president launches major war against Boko Haram terrorists


Nigeria, showing major historic tribes. Northern tribes (Fulani, Hausa) are generally Muslim, southern tribes (Yoruba, Igbo, Berom) are generally Christian.

Nigeria’s president Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state ofemergency in the northeast regions of Nigeria, and has orderedfull-scale deployment of the army and air force to fight Boko Haramterrorists in the region. Prior to 2009, Boko Haram was a littleknown Muslim sect of ethnic Hausa people, but since that time, they’veestablished a linking with al-Qaeda. Starting in 2010, Boko Harambegan a series of terrorist attacks across the, often bombingChristian churches. In the last year, Boko Haram has announced theintention to establish an Islamist state in Nigeria’s northease.There have been a number of major clashes between the army and BokoHaram, especially around Maiduguri in the Hausa region, where the BokoHaram fighters are indistinguishable from ordinary civilians. Theresult of these clashes is that hundreds of civilians were killed andtheir homes burned down and destroyed, with no clear idea whether itwas the army or Boko Haram that did the most damage and killed themost innocent civilians. Thus, the new military action is highlycontroversial in Nigeria, with many fearing that it will mean that thearmy’s heavy weapons and the air force’s bombs will kill a lot ofcivilians, but won’t do much to end the Boko Haram threat.

The rise of Boko Haram from a terrorist group to a well-armed militiais another unintended consequence of the West’s military interventionin Libya in 2011. The Libyan action provided a training ground forIslamist jihadists, and also provided vast stores of heavy weaponsstolen from Muammar Gaddafi’s unguarded storehouses. The result hasbeen a major al-Qaeda linked militia in northern Mali, and terroristattacks across northern Africa, from Algeria to Egypt. Tribune (Nigeria) and PM News (Nigeria) and BBC

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