War Drums Beating, U.S. Considering Air Strikes On Assad Regime, Al-Nusra Shells Russian Embassy In Damascus

Every single day it seems that the rhetoric and the actions escalate, and if you are following this story (unfortunately the U.S. media is ignoring this very important emerging subject) - about the U.S. and Russia (and China for that matter) gearing up for war, then you share my concerns. This is getting downright scary at this point - as stated before, either this stops and stops soon, or we are going to find ourselves in war with another world power and that can't be a good thing...At all. 

40 Million Russians To Take Part In "Nuclear Disaster" Drill, Days After US General Warns Of War With Moscow

As relations between Russia and the US disintegrate as a result of the escalating proxy war in Syria, which today culminated with Putin halting a Plutonium cleanup effort with the US, shortly before the US State Department announced it would end negotiations with Russia over Syria, tomorrow an unprecedented 40 million Russian citizens, as well as 200,000 specialists from "emergency rescue divisions" and 50,000 units of equipment are set to take part in a four day-long civil defense, emergency evacuation and disaster preparedness drill, the Russian Ministry for Civil Defense reported on its website. 

According to the ministry, an all-Russian civil defense drill involving federal and regional executive authorities and local governments dubbed "Organization of civil defense during large natural and man-caused disasters in the Russian Federation" will start tomorrow morning in all constituent territories of Russia and last until October 7. 

While the ministry does not specify what kind of "man-caused disaster" it envisions, it would have to be a substantial one for 40 million Russians to take part in the emergency preparedness drill. Furthermore, be reading the guidelines of the drill, we can get a rather good idea of just what it is that Russia is "preparing" for.

The website adds that "the main goal of the drill is to practice organization of management during civil defense events and emergency and fire management, to check preparedness of management bodies and forces of civil defense on all levels to respond to natural and man-made disasters and to take civil defense measures." Oleg Manuilov, director of the Civil Defence Ministry explained that the exercise will be a test of how the population would respond to a "disaster" under an "emergency" situation.

Why now? Perhaps, in addition to the sharp deterioration in relations between Russia and the west, where tensions are on par with the cold war, another answer may come from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, who last week warned Congress that the implementation of a No Fly Zone in Syria as proposed by John Kerry recently, and a centerpiece of Hillary’s foreign policy strategy, would result in World War III.

During testimony before the Senate Committee on Armed Services last week General Joseph Dunford rang the alarm over a policy shift that is gaining more traction within the halls of Washington following the collapse of the ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia in Syria saying that it could result in a major international war which he was not prepared to advocate on behalf of. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi asked about Hillary Clinton’s proposal for a no fly zone in Syria in response to allegations that Russia and Syria have intensified their aerial bombardment of rebel-held East Aleppo since the collapse of the ceasefire.

"What about the option of controlling the airspace so that barrel bombs cannot be dropped? What do you think of that option?" asked Wicker. "Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria would require us to go to war against Syria and Russia. That is a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make," said the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggesting the policy was too hawkish even for military leaders.

As a reminder, Hillary Clinton strongly argued in favor of a no fly zone ever since October 2015, just days after Russia began a bombing campaign aimed at maintaining the stability of the Syrian government. "I personally would be advocating now for a no fly zone and humanitarian corridors to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air, to try to provide some way to take stock of what’s happening, to try to stem the flow of refugees," said Clinton in an interview with NBC in October 2015.

Russian Army Is Drafting 152,000 New Soldiers

According to head of the Main Organization and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Russia is holding a fall draft to gain 152,000 new servicemen. Another 155,000 were just drafted last spring.

Via Sputnik:

“In the fall of this year, 152,000 people will be drafted for military service and sent to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as well as other troops, military formations and bodies, to complete it,” Col. Gen. Vasily Tonkoshkurov told reporters.

Obviously they are gearing up for something…

Russia-US dialogue on Syria failed as Washington has no unified stance

The Russia-US peace effort in Syria broke down due to the lack of a unified stance on the issue in Washington and the US should acknowledge its failure, Maria Zakharova, Russia Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told RT. 

“The problem is that for the whole time we were involved in Russian-American negotiations… we realized very clearly that the US had no joint position. Different organizations, different structures in Washington were taking different positions on what’s going on Syria. They had absolutely different views,” Zakharova said.

The Americans “were changing their opinion and their point of view on what’s going on in Syria, actually, every day… Probably, that was the main reason why they failed in fulfilling those agreements that we achieved,” she added. 

Zakharova blamed the American side for the breakdown of the peace deal and said “they should be honest with this.” 

“The reality was very clear. We had two main tasks. First one was the separation of Jabhat al-Nusra [terrorists] and moderate opposition. And our American colleagues failed in fulfilling their promise. The second task was to pull back the governmental forces and moderate opposition forces from Castello Road. And our American colleagues, unfortunately, failed for the second time,” she said.

According to the spokeswoman, the Americans “told us that they have no possibilities to influence the moderate opposition.”

“Actually, we’re not sure that moderate opposition still exists. Because these guys, who were fighting for many months as Jabhat al-Nusra – with the same weapons, using same methods – hardly could be called moderate opposition. But we respected our American colleagues, who were insisting that these guys are still moderate,” she said.

Moscow delivers S-300 missile system to Syria for defense of Russian naval base

A battery of Russian S-300 air defense missile launchers has been transported to Syria, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. Its sole purpose is to defend a Russian naval base and warships, the ministry added.

The information about the S-300’s deployment was confirmed by ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.

“Indeed, the Syrian Arab Republic received an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. This system is designed to ensure the safety of the naval base in [Syrian city of] Tartus and ships located in the coastal area [in Syria]…” he told the media.

Konashenkov said it is unclear why the deployment of the missile system has created such a fuss in the West.

“The S-300 is a purely defensive system and poses no threat,” he said.

In Syria, Russia Has Done Everything It Can to De-Escalate Violence

As Washington has officially halted all bilateral contacts with Moscow regarding Syria, a hard-won truce in the war-torn country is collapsing.

Catherine Shakdam, director of programs for the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies told Radio Sputnik that Russia has repeatedly attempted to bring all the warring parties in Syria to the negotiating table, including President Bashar Assad, the country’s legitimate leader. And, unlike Washington, Moscow has consistently operated within international law in Syria, and has done everything it can to de-escalate the violence.

Washington, however, has gone to great lengths to “fabricate and trade narratives” in establishing blame, without offering practical solutions.

“The US goes and starts wars without knowing what they want to see happen,” Shakdam said, referencing numerous American interventions in the Middle East and other areas. “They are always putting the powers against each other, always playing both sides of the river – because they want to make sure they’re sitting on the right side of the history. There’s no endgame, as such.”

In Syria, the US “tries to sanitize the radicals, saying they’re the solution to the Assad problem,” she said. President Assad is portrayed as a “war criminal that has to go, but we haven’t been told why,” she stated, adding, “they are trying to sell terrorism as the lesser evil against the greater evil, which makes no sense.”

The academic suggested that she has found it revealing that Washington seeks to balkanize the Middle East by means of military violence, which, conversely, creates perfect conditions for interventionism. But the truth is, according to Shakdam, that the crisis has spiraled out of Washington’s control.

“The US is trying to play stability and pretend they are in control, but instability is pulling the train today,” Shakdam said. “In reality, they [Washington] don’t have a plan except driving Assad out, which will create another vacuum, just like in Iraq or Afghanistan.”

US Considering Air Strikes On Assad Regime After Top General Warns It Could Lead To War With Russia

Now that the gloves have come off in the faux diplomacy between Russia and the US, which yesterday culminated with Putin halting a Plutonium cleanup effort with the US, shortly before the US State Department announced it would end negotiations with Russia over Syria, the next step may be one which John Kerry warned last week is "back on the table", namely the launch of military strikes on the Assad regime. 

As WaPo reports, meetings have been going on within US national security agencies for weeks to consider new options to recommend to the president to address the ongoing crisis in Aleppo. A meeting of the Principals Committee, which includes Cabinet-level officials, is scheduled for Wednesday while a meeting of the National Security Council, which could include the president, could come as early as this weekend.

As Reuters hinted last week, at a Deputies Committee meeting at the White House, officials from the State Department, the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed limited military strikes against the regime as a "means of forcing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to pay a cost for his violations of the cease-fire...Or, in other words, to cut to the chase and go right back to what the US was hoping to achieve in Syria in the first place: another regime change.

Among the options considered include bombing Syrian air force runways using cruise missiles and other long-range weapons fired from coalition planes and ships. One proposed way to get around the White House’s long-standing objection to striking the Assad regime without a U.N. Security Council resolution would be to carry out the strikes covertly and without public acknowledgment, the official said. In other words, the warhawks in the administration are actively contemplating not only bypassing the White House, but flaunting the UN and launching a sovereign incursions, also known as a war, against Syria.

There is another problem: launching bombing raides over Syria would necessarily require the creation of a "no fly zone" for Syrian and, more importantly, Russian warplanes.  However, as we noted yesterday, during testimony before the Senate Committee on Armed Services last week General Joseph Dunford rang the alarm over a policy shift that is gaining more traction within the halls of Washington following the collapse of the ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia in Syria saying that it could result in a major international war which he was not prepared to advocate on behalf of.

"What about the option of controlling the airspace so that barrel bombs cannot be dropped? What do you think of that option?" asked Wicker. "Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria would require us to go to war against Syria and Russia. That is a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make," said the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggesting the policy was too hawkish even for military leaders.

As we further added last night, despite Dunford's warning, the military angle has gained traction in recent weeks among top US diplomats, as today's WaPo report confirms. 

And since the report is, at least for now, just a trial balloon to gauge the Russian reaction to a potential US military incursion, we now wait to see what Putin's reaction to the possibility of a US military campaign in Syria will be.

Al-Nusra Front Shells Russian Embassy in Damascus

The Russian embassy in Damascus was shelled from the areas controlled by al-Nusra Front and Faylaq al-Rahman militants, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The Russian diplomatic mission came under mortar shelling on October 3. One of the mines exploded on the embassy area near its residential department. Fortunately, no one was wounded. The diplomatic mission sustained material damage. Another two mines went off next to the embassy."

The Ministry said the shelling was conducted from the Jobar municipality controlled by al-Nusra Front and Faylaq al-Rahman terrorists.

"We view this shelling of the Russian embassy as a consequence of actions of those who, like the US and its allies, provoke the violent conflict in Syria, flirting with militants and extremists of different sorts."