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Friday, October 16, 2015


RUSSIA LAUNCHES CRUISE MISSILES FROM CASPIAN, USA ...

 RUSSIA LAUNCHES CRUISE MISSILES FROM CASPIAN, USA ... If you've been following the USA-minted and made crises in the Middle East, and the Russian intervention in Syria in particular, you'll have heard about that Russian launch of cruise missiles from the Caspian sea to Syria, missiles which, in themselves, weren't supposed to be able to "go that far". But there's more, as a little reading between the lines of this article will show:
Russia’s New Mega-Missile Stuns the Globe
Here's the part that concerns us:
“The strikes engaged plants producing ammunition and explosives, command centers, storages of munitions, armament, and [oil], as well as a training camp of terrorists on the territory of Raqqa, Idlib, and Aleppo,” according to the ministry. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the missiles struck all 11 planned targets.
The Russian military celebrated the raid with a press release and an official video, and Shoigu went on national TV to praise the operation. Kurdish militiamen shot video they claimed depicted the missiles flying over northern Iraq. And the U.S. military apparently closely tracked the rocket-powered, guided munitions—and later claimed that several malfunctioned and crashed in Iran.
The media coverage was at least as important as the destruction of the alleged rebel facilities, U.S. defense officials told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “This is Russia demonstrating on a global stage that it has a lot of reach,” one official explained.
Eric Wertheim, an independent U.S. naval analyst and author of the definitive Combat Fleets of the World, a reference guide to warships and their weapons, agrees, saying of the missile volley: “I think it was a demonstration to the world.”
Wertheim and other foreign analysts were familiar with an earlier version of the SS-N-30 called the SS-N-27, but the latter is an anti-ship missile and the analysts assumed it could only fly 150 miles or so—a fraction of the roughly thousand miles the rockets traveled during the recent raid.
(Emphasis added)
Now, you'll note that Washington's response to the Russian intervention has been to wring its hands, call the Russians and Mr. Putin the usual names and make the usual charges, and to basically admit the point by curtailing its half-a-billion dollar "training" program for the "moderates" to fight ISIS (which some claim it also funded)... well, the story is confusing, but basically, Russia is showing America's war on terror for what it is, for the breathtaking swiftness with which opponents of the Assad regime - ISIS or "moderates" - are being targeted and destroyed. But as the article above notes, Russia is demonstrating that it has "reach," 1000 mile cruise missile reach, when one version of the missile was suspected of only having a 150 mile range, and that was an anti-ship cruise missile.
So it takes little imagination to see that the 1000 mile range of an anti-ship cruise missile might be just a tiny bit worrying to Washington, saddled as it is with big, expensiv,e slow moving targetable aircraft carriers. Yesterday, you'll recall, I blogged about the Chinese CIPS international payment system being launched, and pointed out that in order to have a viable system of international clearing, one must have (1) lots of space based communications and the ability to protect them, and (2), a strong navy. I pointed out also that, on paper, China would appear to lag dramatically behind the United States...
... unless, of course, one has anti-ship cruise missiles that can strike aircraft carriers from 1000 miles (or more) away. Then you have a "problem."
And, of course, for the Zbgnw Brzznsk school of grand chessboard playing, this revelation of a cruise missile with a one thousand mile range being fired from Russian warships on the Caspian sea brings a great chunk of that Central Asian highland, so necessary to American unipolar imperialist ambitions in Brzznsk's "thinking", under the threat of potential Russian interdiction.
Worse yet, Washington may have attempted to shoot down four of those cruise missiles... in Iran no less... with...
... words. Consider this article, outlining a CNN story claiming four of the Russian cruise missiles landed in Iran, which not even the State Department would confirm, and which the Iranian government pointedly denied:
CNN launches dud against Russian campaign in Syria
Russia has little reason to bombard Iran, even by mistake, and even if it did, it would probably acknowledge it, and Iran would probably as well. Neither would have anything to gain by hiding such an event, because it would quickly be exposed with proof or at least some corroborating evidence and data of its occurrence. Instead... nothing.
The bottom line here?
Not even in the bad old days of the glorious socialist workers' paradise that was the Soviet Union, with the emninently bad and silly propaganda  from Radio Moscow with its brass fanfares, was propaganda this bad. The empire isn't simply insane. It's just becoming silly. Don't believe me yet? Well, the President of the Russian Federation is a former KGB officer, and has a juris doctor degree in international law. The main contender for the nomination to the Presidency of the USSA Empire in one political party is a casino manager, and on the other side of the non-existent aisle, a self-proclaimed socialist.

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