globalresearch.ca
December 17, 2012
On December 14, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed a Pentagon order to deploy 400 US missile troops to Turkey. According to Washington, the security of Turkey, NATO’s heavyweight, is threatened. US military personnel will to be deployed to Turkey in the coming weeks to operate two US Patriot missile batteries.
According
to the Pentagon’s spokesman, George Little:
“The United States has been supporting Turkey in its efforts to defend itself… [Against Syria]“I’m not going to go into precise locations at this time, he added, “but I wanted to let you…know that we signed that order and that we are prepared in the context of NATO to support the defense of Turkey for an unspecified period of time.”“The purpose of this deployment is to signal very strongly that the United States, working closely with our NATO allies, is going to support the defense of Turkey, especially with potential threats emanating from Syria,” US Air Force News, December 14, 2012)
The Patriot surface-to-air
interceptors are deployed to deal “with threats that come out of Syria”
According to U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta these threats “include Syrian
strikes inside Turkey and fighting between the government and rebels that
extends into Turkey” (CNN, December 14, 2012):
“We can’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether that pisses off Syria,” said Panetta [sic] after signing the order Friday. (Ibid, emphasis added)
In addition to the US missile
deployment, Germany and the Netherlands have confirmed that they will also
deploy Patriot missiles in Turkey directed against Syria.
Not mentioned in the official
Pentagon statement, this buildup of patriot missile batteries is not only
directed against Syria, it is intended to confront Russia’s military
presence in Syria as well as its support to the development of
Syria’s air defense system.
THE US-NATO LED INSURGENCY
The Pentagon’s initiative in
Turkey is part of the US-NATO-Israeli led insurgency against Syria. In recent
months, this insurgency has evolved towards an unofficial (yet de facto)
allied invasion characterized by the presence inside Syria of French, British,
Turkish and Qatari Special Forces.
These Special Forces are
“embedded” within rebel ranks. They are not only participating in the training
of rebel forces, they are also involved in de facto paramilitary
command and coordination, in liaison with NATO.
In other words, member states of
the Atlantic Alliance through their Special Forces and intelligence operatives
on the ground largely determine the nature and thrust of rebel
activities.
Of significance, the main
fighting force directly recruited and trained by US-NATO, Saudi Arabia and
Qatar is the Al
Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliated militia involved in
countless terrorist acts against civilians.
ED Noor: Read more on the chutzpah of this organization. And yes, I say chutzpah because we all know who is behind these criminal machinations.:
THE BROADER MIDDLE EAST WAR
The US Patriot missile deployment
in Turkey is part of a regional process of militarization which includes
the establishment of US command posts and the stationing of American troops in
Jordan and Israel. This regional military deployment also
threatens Iran.
Moreover, US-NATO-Israeli war
preparations with regard to Syria are coordinated with those pertaining to
Iran. The command posts in Israel, which oversee some 1000 US troops, in
coordination with Israel’s IDF, are under the jurisdiction of US European
Command (EUCOM).
In a recent statement Iran’s
chief of staff warned that the stationing of Patriot anti-missile batteries on
Turkey’s border with Syria “was setting the stage for world war”
It is worth noting that in
addition to the Patriot missiles in Turkey, Patriot batteries targeted at Iran
have also been deployed to Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain (2010).
.
US Patriot Missile
RUSSIA’S AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS IN SYRIA
In response to the US-allied
missile deployment, Russia delivered advanced Iskander missiles to Syria, which
are now fully operational, not to mention the ground to air Russian defense
system Pechora 2M.
The Iskander is described as a surface-to-surface missile system
“that no missile defense system can trace or destroy”:
The superior
Iskander can travel at hypersonic speed of over 1.3 miles per second (Mach 6-7)
and has a range of over 280 miles with pinpoint accuracy of destroying targets
with its 1,500-pound warhead, a nightmare for any missile defense system.
Iskander Mach 6-7
Moreover, Syria is equipped
with the modern Pechora-2M air defense system,
which US military sources admit would constitute “a threat”, namely an
obstacle, in the case “a no fly zone” were implemented in relation to
Syria.
The Pechora-2M is a sophisticated
multiple target system which can also be used against cruise missiles.
The Pechora-2M is a
surface-to-air anti-aircraft short-range missile system designed for
destruction of aircraft, cruise missiles, assault helicopters and other air
targets at ground, low and medium altitudes
.
.
Ground to air
defense Russian Pechora 2M deployed to Syria (above)
RUSSIA STANDS FIRMLY IN SUPPORT OF SYRIA
Contrary to recent reports,
Russia is supporting the government of Bashar al Assad.
On December 14, the Russian
Foreign Ministry dismissed rumors, largely instrumented by Western press
agencies and the New York Times, that Moscow had changed its position with
regard to Syria. The media hype plastered on news headlines was based on an
unofficial off-the-cuff statement by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Mikhail
Bodganov;
“We must face the facts: the current tendency shows that the government is progressively losing control over an increasing part of the territory,” Bogdanov told the Public Chamber. “An opposition victory can’t be ruled out.”
The
statement had nothing to do with Russia’s stance with regard to Syria.
In fact quite the opposite, Moscow has increased its military cooperation with
Damascus in response to Western threats.
“…We never changed our position, and will not do so in the future,” said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lukashevich at a press briefing in Moscow.
It is worth noting that on
December 5, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov accused
Western countries of violating the arms embargo by transferring “extensive
supplies of weapons to the Syrian “opposition” which is in large part
composed of Al Qaeda affilated militia,
DANGEROUS CROSSROADS IN RUSSIA-US RELATIONS
Washington and its allies have
consistently supported the various terrorist entities which are part of the
“opposition” rebel forces.
In recent developments, the Free
Syrian Army (FSA) is threatening to execute a Ukrainian journalist (see photo
Below) and has also announced that they will “kill Russians and Ukrainians
nationals” in Syria.
The Free Syria Army (FSA) are the
foot-soldiers of the Western military alliance. Without Western support they
would not be able to confront Syrian government forces.
.
The decision to threaten and
target
Russian nationals
did not emanate from the “opposition” rebel forces,
but directly from Washington.
Russian nationals
did not emanate from the “opposition” rebel forces,
but directly from Washington.
These threats constitute a
deliberate act of provocation against the Russian government which is providing
military support to Syria. “Opposition” forces in consultation with US-NATO are
now threatening Russia, which is an ally of Syria.
We are at a dangerous crossroads:
while Patriot missiles are installed in Turkey, Russian Iskander missiles are
deployed in Syria.
French, British, Turkish and
Qatari special forces are involved in the recruitment and training of FSA
rebels, which are in large part mercenaries. The FSA is now targeting Russian
citizens in Syria on the orders of Washington, leading to a potential breakdown
in international diplomacy.
Moscow considers these threats as
“akin to a declaration of war” stating that “the armed insurgents in Syria
[supported by the West] have been emboldened to a point that they have stepped
into an area where they are beyond the law.”
Is the threat directed against
Russian nationals in Syria the prelude towards a broader process of
confrontation between US-NATO and Russia?
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