Evening Update: Russia Leaving Syria?

If true, this is a strange twist and one has to wonder just what is really going on. If Russia is indeed leaving Syria, then speculation is appropriate regarding their reasons - after all, we have to assume that their intelligence in the region is extensive - so what do they know?

Russia Disengaging From Syria: Arms Shipments Stopped, Warships Exit Tartus

Russian naval vessels have unexpectedly departed the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus and Russian arms shipments to Syria have been suddenly discontinued.

According to our military and Russian sources, these drastic steps must have been personally ordered by President Vladimir Putin. He is believed to have acted over the objections of some of his army and naval chiefs. This would explain the mixed statements issuing from Moscow in recent days about the disposition of Russian personnel at the naval base in Tartus and Russian military personnel in Syria.

Russians are rapidly drawing away from the Syrian arena to avoid getting caught up in the escalating hostilities expected to arise from military intervention

Russians have taken five significant military steps with regard to Syria in the last two weeks:

1. They cancelled a large-scale naval exercise dubbed “Caucasus 2012” scheduled to start mid-August in the eastern Mediterranean opposite the Syrian coast;

2. Warships from three fleets - the Northern, Baltic and Black Sea – concentrated opposite Syria have dispersed and returned to their bases;

3. Syrian President Bashar Assad was notified that Moscow was halting military aid to his army - except for intelligence updates and advice on logistics from Russian military advisers;

4. Moscow has not clearly announced a freeze on arms shipments, including replacement parts for Russian weapons, which make up the bulk of the Syrian army's weaponry. Officials have only said, “There are no large Russian weapons shipments planned in the near future to Syria."

5. The only Russian naval ship left in Tartus - a floating Russian Navy PM-138 shipyard – is also under orders to depart Tartus and return to the Black Sea in September.

A Russian source disclosed that all the remaining Russian personnel in Tartus have gathered on the floating shipyard, except for two officers on shore. This vessel and the remaining personnel are evidently packed up and ready to sail at any moment out of the Syrian port.

Now for a new segment that may be daily:

CTOTDTWGOS:

What If...?

For weeks now there have been all sorts of stories of various government agencies buying up millions of rounds of ammunition. Try as they might, those agencies/the US government have/has not been able to present a plausible story to convince American citizens that they are NOT up to something nefarious.

Sad to say, we just don’t trust our government anymore ... not that we’ve trusted them a great deal for a very long time, you understand. But the level of trust that we had—previous to the Obama Administration—has plummeted right through the floor.

We have been pummeled with lie after lie from Washington until we have become saturated with their prevarications and like a “soaked” sponge, we simply cannot hold any more.

Now, allow me to be clear: I have no idea what the government has planned for those millions of rounds of ammo they have ordered. It’s for darn sure the US military cannot use them—on the battlefield. But, I know of no law precluding them from using that ammo within the borders of the US. (At least one state has certain restrictions on the sale and use of hollow point ammo.) They just can’t shoot America’s enemies with it on a foreign battlefield.

What we know for sure is—basically—NOTHING. A number of gun owner organizations are pressing for a congressional investigation of these massive purchases of ammunition by (and reportedly for) government agencies that, at first glance, seem to have no use for this type of man stopping/killing ammo.

That we are even having THIS conversation only adds to the feeling of unease permeating America today.

It just doesn’t FEEL like America, anymore. In fact, America has begun to favor a banana republic, especially at our air terminals. Law enforcement officers dressed in black—and some in military fatigue-type uniforms—toting semi-automatic long guns, lends to the feeling that America’s citizens are more hostage than free.

Urban Warfare Drills: Psy-Op Acclimating Americans To Military On U.S. Streets