Wars & Rumours of Wars

nivek

As Above So Below
More importantly, what do the Taiwanese think about it?

Good point, it is Taiwanese citizens who will ultimately pay the price for her visit should things spiral out of control...

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nivek

As Above So Below
Will the second time take?...

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nivek

As Above So Below

Nancy Pelosi tells Taiwanese legislature US has 'unwavering' support for Taipei's democracy and mentions Tiananmen Square massacre in speech promoting 'security, economy and governance' for hotly contested island nation

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan's Parliament in Taipei on her first full day of her trip to the island. While at the legislature, Pelosi emphasized bipartisan support for Taiwan despite China's threats of 'consequences' and demonstrations of military force over her visit. She brought up of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and expressed concerns over China's trade practices and technology transfers. She also praised the nation's COVID-19 response, in terms of governance and economy, and said she wants Taiwan's successes to be recognized worldwide. Pelosi is the highest-ranking US official to visit the island in 25 years. She said, in a statement Tuesday, that her visit 'honors America's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant democracy.'

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nivek

As Above So Below

'Russia will re-broadcast his words': Jeremy Corbyn is branded a 'disgrace' after he condemns the UK for 'pouring arms into Ukraine' and calls for peace with Russia

Jeremy Corbyn was branded a 'disgrace' last night after attacking Britain for 'pouring arms into Ukraine' instead of seeking peaceful negotiations with Vladimir Putin. The former Labour leader said providing military aid would only 'prolong and exaggerate' the conflict. He made the remarks during an interview with Al Mayadeen, a Lebanon-based TV channel accused of having sympathies with terrorist organisation Hezbollah and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
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AD1184

Celestial
Good point, it is Taiwanese citizens who will ultimately pay the price for her visit should things spiral out of control...

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I should think most Taiwanese are not too pleased about it. My understanding is that there are small but roughly equal minorities who want either re-unification with China, or de jure independence. The rest are happy to maintain the ambiguous status quo. Pelosi's trip is upsetting the status quo, so will only please the minority who wish to declare full independence.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
I should think most Taiwanese are not too pleased about it. My understanding is that there are small but roughly equal minorities who want either re-unification with China, or de jure independence. The rest are happy to maintain the ambiguous status quo. Pelosi's trip is upsetting the status quo, so will only please the minority who wish to declare full independence.

South Korea doesn't seem pleased either, perhaps Pelosi should not have flown to that region...

Is South Korea's President avoiding Nancy? Yoon refuses to cancel vacation to meet Pelosi - and avoids infuriating China further - after her Taiwan visit sparked military drills, buzzing fighter jets and a promise to 'make America pay'


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nivek

As Above So Below
So the 20 years was a complete waste, the astronomical failures in Afghanistan are now complete...

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Al-Zawahiri’s death is a great win for America but confirms a catastrophic failure by Biden

(Excerpt)

First, congratulations to President Biden on bringing al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to justice. It may have taken 21 years to get him since the evil terrorist dubbed “bin Laden’s brains” masterminded the 9/11 attacks. But better late than never.
_____________________

Yet after Biden’s disastrous overnight withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer, betraying the people there — including allies — to the Taliban wolves, the president assured us that al Qaeda was “gone” from the country.

“Let’s put this thing in perspective,” he said, “what interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan … And we did.”

Turns out he didn’t.

In fact, al Qaeda’s No. 1 terrorist swiftly moved into Kabul with his family, just a few months after Biden’s ill-advised and woefully inaccurate boast.

The brazen impunity of this move is disconcerting enough, but far more worrying are the disturbing questions it raises.

There is a not a snowball in hell’s chance that Zawahiri would have done this without the knowledge and explicit support of Taliban chiefs.

As Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, this constitutes a “gross violation” of the Taliban’s commitment in the Doha agreement made after the US withdrawal that they would not provide safe harbor to al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Biden said yesterday that in recent weeks, Zawahiri had been making videos “calling for his followers to attack the United States and our allies.”

Incredibly, this means the leader of al Qaeda was actively plotting further terror attacks from inside Kabul, and the Taliban knew it.

Of course, this makes an absolute mockery of Biden’s claim that al Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan.

But if the Taliban allowed Zawahiri to do this, how many more al Qaeda operatives are back in Afghanistan right now, also planning to murder Americans and their allies?

The whole point of the 20-year war that followed 9/11 was precisely to stop al Qaeda using Afghanistan as a base to plan more such attacks.


(More on the link)

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AD1184

Celestial
ya know, I wondered about that and thought it was just me or the Mengele Effect. Just bullshit, I see. That and the Taiwan visit timed for our election cycle and polling numbers. At least right now nobody is talking about Mr.Pelosi, DWI and insider trading.
Do you remember an alternate reality where this phenomenon is known as the Mengele effect?
 

nivek

As Above So Below
ya know, I wondered about that and thought it was just me or the Mengele Effect. Just bullshit, I see. That and the Taiwan visit timed for our election cycle and polling numbers. At least right now nobody is talking about Mr.Pelosi, DWI and insider trading.

The trip included the insider trading, she toured the chip factory that her husband recently invested money...Not that they hide this shyte anymore, bold and brazen, no wonder half of Americans think we're headed for a civil war...

Yep election and polls are coming to the forefront, the timing of the drone assassination of the Al-Qaeda leader was also intentional, 3 months before the elections...Funny though hardly anyone is talking about the obvious failure this exposes, Al-Qaeda back in business in Afghanistan, shop's open, business as usual...The American occupation over the past 20 years counting for nought, well not entirely...Now the Taliban are the richest black market arms dealers in the world with all of the state of the art weaponry, we spared no expense...

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nivek

As Above So Below

China launches its biggest ever live-fire military drill just 12 miles off Taiwan - with missiles shot OVER the island for first time 'in rehearsal for an invasion': Fears Beijing 'miscalculation' could spark WAR

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China has launched its largest-ever live-fire military drills around Taiwan today (left), sending stealth-fighters, helicopters, long-range bombers, destroyers and corvettes to surround the island (top right) as state media warns missiles are due to be fired over the territory for the first time, in what would be a serious escalation. Military experts who spoke to the state-run Global Times newspaper said the war games are a rehearsal for an invasion, and show Beijing's 'determination of resolving Taiwan question once and for all'. Foreign ministers from the ASEAN group of nations which share the eastern Pacific with China and Taiwan have called for 'restraint' - saying a single miscalculation could spark 'open conflict'. American forces, including the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, are thought to be lurking in the region while missile-tracking spy planes have been sent to watch over the drills. Xi Jinping has reacted with fury to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting the island between Tuesday and Wednesday, making her the most-senior politician to go to Taiwan since Newt Gingrich in 1997.

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AD1184

Celestial

China launches its biggest ever live-fire military drill just 12 miles off Taiwan - with missiles shot OVER the island for first time 'in rehearsal for an invasion': Fears Beijing 'miscalculation' could spark WAR

View attachment 17010

China has launched its largest-ever live-fire military drills around Taiwan today (left), sending stealth-fighters, helicopters, long-range bombers, destroyers and corvettes to surround the island (top right) as state media warns missiles are due to be fired over the territory for the first time, in what would be a serious escalation. Military experts who spoke to the state-run Global Times newspaper said the war games are a rehearsal for an invasion, and show Beijing's 'determination of resolving Taiwan question once and for all'. Foreign ministers from the ASEAN group of nations which share the eastern Pacific with China and Taiwan have called for 'restraint' - saying a single miscalculation could spark 'open conflict'. American forces, including the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, are thought to be lurking in the region while missile-tracking spy planes have been sent to watch over the drills. Xi Jinping has reacted with fury to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting the island between Tuesday and Wednesday, making her the most-senior politician to go to Taiwan since Newt Gingrich in 1997.

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The Daily Telegraph's defence editor Con Coughlin reckons that China is not up to the task:

[Note: the Telegraph operates a paywall, but it is easily defeated in its current form by disabling Javascript. Chromium-based browsers (e.g. Chrome, Brave) permit you to restrict Javascript usage on a site-by-site bases in the permissions section of the Privacy and Security settings. Add the Telegraph to the Javascript block list and you can browse the articles for free. Firefox unfortunately only has a global Javascript setting for all sites, unless you download an extension which adds a blocklist.]

Certainly it would take a months-long build-up before China could even launch an invasion attempt. At the very least a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would cause global economic misery, especially on top of the Ukraine war and the pandemic recovery. The value of Taiwan is in its unparalleled semi-conductor manufacturing capability. Other countries are several years behind Taiwan in the quality of chips they are able to produce. That is why China wants it so badly.
 

AD1184

Celestial
So the 20 years was a complete waste, the astronomical failures in Afghanistan are now complete...

...

Al-Zawahiri’s death is a great win for America but confirms a catastrophic failure by Biden

(Excerpt)

First, congratulations to President Biden on bringing al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to justice. It may have taken 21 years to get him since the evil terrorist dubbed “bin Laden’s brains” masterminded the 9/11 attacks. But better late than never.
_____________________

Yet after Biden’s disastrous overnight withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer, betraying the people there — including allies — to the Taliban wolves, the president assured us that al Qaeda was “gone” from the country.

“Let’s put this thing in perspective,” he said, “what interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan … And we did.”

Turns out he didn’t.

In fact, al Qaeda’s No. 1 terrorist swiftly moved into Kabul with his family, just a few months after Biden’s ill-advised and woefully inaccurate boast.

The brazen impunity of this move is disconcerting enough, but far more worrying are the disturbing questions it raises.

There is a not a snowball in hell’s chance that Zawahiri would have done this without the knowledge and explicit support of Taliban chiefs.

As Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, this constitutes a “gross violation” of the Taliban’s commitment in the Doha agreement made after the US withdrawal that they would not provide safe harbor to al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Biden said yesterday that in recent weeks, Zawahiri had been making videos “calling for his followers to attack the United States and our allies.”

Incredibly, this means the leader of al Qaeda was actively plotting further terror attacks from inside Kabul, and the Taliban knew it.

Of course, this makes an absolute mockery of Biden’s claim that al Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan.

But if the Taliban allowed Zawahiri to do this, how many more al Qaeda operatives are back in Afghanistan right now, also planning to murder Americans and their allies?

The whole point of the 20-year war that followed 9/11 was precisely to stop al Qaeda using Afghanistan as a base to plan more such attacks.


(More on the link)
The US should have had a different strategy with Afghanistan from the very beginning. It should have made periodic surgical strikes to kill Al-Qaeda in the country, rather than full-scale invasion, regime change, and "nation building". The latter is an impossible objective, thus this grand strategy was doomed to fail. However, the US felt the need to make a display of force by embarking on its deluded Afghanistan adventure in 2001. And then, when that was not felt enough, it embarked on another debacle in Iraq, the repercussions of which are still being felt across the Arab world and Europe.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
The US should have had a different strategy with Afghanistan from the very beginning. It should have made periodic surgical strikes to kill Al-Qaeda in the country, rather than full-scale invasion, regime change, and "nation building". The latter is an impossible objective, thus this grand strategy was doomed to fail. However, the US felt the need to make a display of force by embarking on its deluded Afghanistan adventure in 2001.
The Taliban are legitimate rulers now...After the Fall of Kabul in 2021 the past Northern Alliance leaders along with other anti-Taliban figureheads reorganized and call themselves the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan...I doubt they will be any match against the Taliban since the latter holds a vast array of state of the art Stark Industries, I mean, United States military hardware...

And then, when that was not felt enough, it embarked on another debacle in Iraq, the repercussions of which are still being felt across the Arab world and Europe.
For a short time it seemed Obama was going to invade Syria similar as we did in Iraq, and commit to regime change...Fortunately that did not take place, I think America has done enough damage in the Middle East...

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AD1184

Celestial
The Taliban are legitimate rulers now...After the Fall of Kabul in 2021 the past Northern Alliance leaders along with other anti-Taliban figureheads reorganized and call themselves the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan...I doubt they will be any match against the Taliban since the latter holds a vast array of state of the art Stark Industries, I mean, United States military hardware...


For a short time it seemed Obama was going to invade Syria similar as we did in Iraq, and commit to regime change...Fortunately that did not take place, I think America has done enough damage in the Middle East...

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I think a lot of the military hardware left in Afghanistan will be of limited use to the Taliban. Complicated equipment needs regular servicing by highly trained technicians. The Taliban do not have many of those. The coalition forces could not even instruct the Afghan soldiers they had recruited into that country's armed forces, and had trained, to use the complicated items due to the high rate of illiteracy and low levels of education in Afghanistan.

I think the thwarting of Obama's regime-change aspirations in Syria, and Russia's embarrassment of the US by interceding in that country at the Syrian government's request, have a lot to do with US manoeuvring against Russia in Ukraine, and ultimately creating the conditions for war that led to the current conflict there.
 

nivek

As Above So Below

Ukraine intelligence chief repeats claim Putin is using a body double... and says his EARS are a giveaway

Ukraine intelligence chief repeats claim Putin is using body doubles and says EARS are a

Ukraine's Major General Kyrylo Budanov appeared on TV to claim to viewers that Putin's height and ears have changed in recent appearances. He said: 'The picture, let's say, of the ears, is different... And it's like a fingerprint, each person's ear picture is unique. It cannot be repeated.' Budanov further alleged that Putin body doubles 'have different habits, different mannerisms, different gaits, sometimes even different heights if you looked closely'. The 69-year-old Russian president's health has been the topic of fierce discussion among commentators. Budanov had previously claimed a Vladimir Putin body 'double' may have been used for his arrival at a summit in Tehran this week, according to the head of Ukrainian military intelligence.

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nivek

As Above So Below
This could be a possible scenario, Biden's administration is the weakest since Carter...

..l

China could invade Taiwan before the 2024 US presidential election

China could invade Taiwan within the next 18 months, current and former officials familiar with U.S. and allied intelligence told Fox News, suggesting a particularly "dangerous" window between the meeting of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party this November and the next U.S. presidential election in 2024.

Two former senior officials told Fox News that the intelligence suggests China sees the potential opportunity for an amphibious assault and military invasion of Taiwan in that time frame.

"We have always had and always been aware that China has an ever-present, ever-evolving plan for an amphibious assault and military invasion of Taiwan. If they are not successful in reunifying politically, then they will do so with force," one former senior intelligence official familiar with U.S. intelligence, and who has discussed intelligence belonging to a U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific, told Fox News.

"What is different now is, we have intelligence that this has gone from an indefinite, nebulous scenario, to a belief that there is a window of opportunity in the next 18 months," the official continued. "I don’t think that’s a coincidence that window of opportunity is within a Biden administration."


(More on the link)

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