World View: Ukraine's President Fires the Chief of the Army amid Protest Crisis

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Ukraine’s president fires the chief of the army amid protest crisis
• Two suicide bombings target Iran’s cultural center in Beirut Lebanon
• George Soros bets that Wall Street is headed for a fall

Ukraine’s president fires the chief of the army amid protest crisis

Monuments to Kiev’s founders burn on Tuesday (AP)

Fears of civil war in Ukraine increased on Wednesday when presidentViktor Yanukovych fired Colonel-General Volodymyr Zamana, the chief ofthe army, on the bloodiest day of protests in Kiev so far, with 26people killed in clashes between protesters and police. This is at atime when the government in Kiev is losing control of much of thewestern part of Ukraine.

For the army chief to be fired during the middle of a major governmentcrisis has led to speculation that Zamana had refused a direct orderto use force on civilians. It’s also possible that his replacement,naval commander Admiral Yuriy Ilyin, will be asked to take backcontrol of western Ukraine.

Speaking on the BBC World Service, Reuben F. Johnson, Kievcorrespondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly, made the following comments(my transcription):

“It’s almost certainly because the president islooking for a military leader who when given an order to use thearmed forces against the public will follow that order. …

We’ve already heard reports from more than two weeks ago fromwestern parts of Ukraine basically saying, if people show up, iftroops show up on the president’s orders from another part ofUkraine, then our troops and our police will fight them. It willbe civil war. There’ll be violence without a doubt. It’s headedfor civil conflict on a very big scale.”

Late in the day, Yanukovych announced that he’d reached a truceagreement with the opposition to end the violence, but he’s announcedsuch agreements before. BBC and AFP(1/24)

Two suicide bombings target Iran’s cultural center in Beirut Lebanon

The string of terrorist attacks specifically targeting Hezbollah andIranian assets in Lebanon continued on Wednesday, when two suicide carbombs targeted an Iranian cultural center in Beirut, killing sixpeople and wounding 80 others.

The string of terrorist attacks was triggered by the announcement,last April 30, by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah gave atelevised speech saying that Hezbollah would militarily enter thefight in Syria on the side of the regime of Syria’s president Basharal-Assad. Nasrallah reluctantly agreed to enter the Syrian war afterbeing commanded to do so by his Iranian puppetmasters. ( “27-Sep-13 World View — How Hezbollah’s reluctant foray into Syria changed the Mideast”)

The Al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed credit forWednesday’s attack on Twitter:

“Your brothers in the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, AliHussein Bin Ali brigades, claim the raid of the Iranian CulturalCenter and it is a twin suicide bombing. It is in response toIran’s party [Hezbollah] fighting alongside the criminal regime inSyria, and the continued detention of Muslim youth in Lebaneseprisons. …

We will continue… to target Iran and its party in Lebanon, inits security and political and military centres, until our demandsare achieved. First: that the Party of Iran (Hezbollah) withdrawsits forces from Syria. Second, that our prisoners are releasedfrom Lebanese prisons.”

Nasrallah’s announcement last year further inflamed Sunni versus Shiaviolence throughout the Mideast. He recently reaffirmed his decisionfor Hezbollah to continue fighting in Syria. Daily Star (Beirut) and AFP

George Soros bets that Wall Street is headed for a fall

According to SEC filings on Friday, George Soros has made a $1.3billion bet that the S&P 500 stock index is headed for a sharp fall,by increasing his holdings of “the S&P 500 ETF SPY,” which pays whenthe S&P 500 falls.

Even the most Pollyannaish financial experts have been anticipating a10-20% stock market correction for over a year now, saying that themarket the had to regroup before it could rise to new heights. Butthe experts have been repeatedly wrong, and there’s been nocorrection. But now apparently Soros is so certain that a correctionis coming that he’s bet a lot of money on it. Market Watch

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