Saudi Arabia Goes to War

http://www.nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/saudi-arabia-goes-war-15349

Yiftah Shapir

February 29, 2016

Saudi Arabia’s recent actions have caused a great deal of anxiety within its region. On February 4, a military spokesman suggested that Saudi Arabia was ready to send troops ground troops to fight ISIS in Syria. A week later Saudi Arabia announced that it will send combat aircraft and soldiers to Turkey to participate in the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS.

Three days later the Saudis launched “Northern Thunder,” described as the “largest military exercise in the history of the Middle East.” Participants from 20 countries sent troops to the maneuvers run over three weeks in Hafar al Batin in northern Saudi Arabia, not far from the Iraqi and Kuwaiti border. According to a Saudi media outlet, some 350,000 troops were expected to participate in the maneuvers.

It is clear that Saudi Arabia was sending a strong message that it is willing to fight back. The message was aimed not at ISIS, but at Iran and its allies: Syria’s Bashar Assad, Hezbollah and above all, Russia.

Some conspiracy theorists even raised the speculation that “Northern Thunder” is nothing but cover for a land invasion into Syria via Iraq or Jordan.

Saudi Arabia has been very anxious about Iran’s strengthening position in the Middle East. The sanctions under which it has been operating have been lifted. Russia entered the war in Syria, supporting Assad and Iran. And on its southern border, Saudi Arabia is stuck in a year-long attempt to push back the forces of Ansar Allah—the Houthis—and restore the government of the deposed Prime Minister Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in Yemen.

Thus, there are many reasons for Saudi Arabia to try to change the situation in Syria. But can Syria do this?

 

The Military Hardware

Saudi Arabia has been investing enormous sums of money into modernizing its military. Its 75,000 strong land forces are equipped with U.S.-supplied M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks and M2 Bradley armored fighting vehicles. Its air force has F-15S Strike Eagles, Eurofighter Typhoons and some older Tornados. Its air defense forces are equipped with Patriot SAMs, and they also have a ballistic missile unit operating the Chinese made DF-21.

Besides the regular army there is the Saudi Arabia National Guard, a separate force under its own minister. It’s as large as the regular army and probably better trained. Although it is almost entirely composed of mechanized infantry (the force does not have main battle tanks), it also has its own artillery and is now in the process of acquiring its own air arm, equipped with AH-64D Apache attack helicopters.

On the face of it, Saudi Arabia is a formidable military force indeed, and the prospects of such a force entering a war in Syria will chill some spines in Damascus, Moscow and Tehran. But will it?

Tanks, combat aircraft and missiles are only as powerful as the people operating, maintaining and supporting them. And in this domain, Saudi Arabia has a very long way to go.

Not much is known about the proficiency of Saudi Arabia’s military as a fighting force. The only real war the Saudis have taken part in was Operation Desert Storm in 1991; and most of the fighting there was done by the US. More recently Saudi Arabia has been fighting in Yemen, but unsuccessfully so far. Foreign advisers speak about the difficulties in bringing Saudi Arabian soldiers to the desired combat readiness and proficiency.

What is well documented is the Saudi military’s level of dependence on foreign aid. Almost all the maintenance and logistic support for Saudi arms is done by foreign contractors. On top of that, there are hundreds of advisers, instructors and trainers constantly on the job.

Saudi Arabia’s economy is highly dependent on foreign labor (roughly a third of the population). The armed forces are no exception. That’s fine, as long as the military goes out of its barracks for exercises only. But a war is something else, and on the battlefield it is difficult to rely on foreign contractors to remain with units. Some sources even maintain that a large part of the fighting in Yemen is done by mercenaries (Saudi Arabia’s ally—the UAE—is recruiting soldiers as far away as Latin America).

The threat of a land invasion into Syria is not over. Recent wars in the region have revived the age-old rivalry between Sunni and Shia Islam. Saudi Arabia—and the Gulf states—have been frustrated with the situation in the region. But Turkey is even more so, and Ankara’s military is of a different caliber. Saudi Arabia is strong enough to give some token help to any move by Turkey, but won’t be able to pull much weight by its own means.

Let me finish with a comment on “Northern Thunder.” Exercises as large as “Northern Thunder” take a very long time to plan and coordinate, and it also takes many months to gather the units together in one place. Yet, “Northern Thunder” appeared in the media out of nowhere (and nothing is known about it since it was announced). Where do you hide 350,000 troops? Are they really there?

Yiftah Shapir is the head of the INSS Middle East Military Balance project. For more than 10 years he was co-editor of the annual volume Middle East Military Balance, where he was responsible for the quantitative section of the publication. Currently he is in charge of the quantitative military balance section on the INSS website. Shapir also follows issues of modern military technology, including ballistic missiles, space technology and Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) in the Middle East. This article first appeared in the Interpreter.

ISIS Plans Nuclear Tsunami

http://allnewspipeline.com/ISIS_Plans_Nuclear_Holocaust.php

The story this morning at the Express is as sobering as one can be and offers us an inside look at the intentions of ISIS and their plans for an ‘endgame’ that, if completed, would literally wipe hundreds of millions of people from the face of the Earth. Telling us that the Islamic State nutcases are planning a ‘nuclear tsunami’ and the biggest religious holocaust the world has ever seen, we learn from British journalist Jurgen Todenhofer, 75, who spent 10 days with them, that ISIS is the ‘most brutal and most dangerous enemy’ he has ever seen. We also take a look below at a video documentary called ‘Unsurvivable’ that shows a very realistic nuclear war scenario that ends with 255 million people dead.

We’re also told that the west is being foolish as we’re vastly underestimating the power of ISIS, words echoed by several 50 US Military intelligence officers who recently revolted against Obama for not warning strongly enough about the dangers of ISIS to America, and that ISIS likely cannot be stopped militarily from achieving their goals. His dire words of warning should not be overlooked.:

“The terrorists plan on killing several hundred million people.”

“The west is drastically underestimating the power of ISIS.”

He says the genocidal killers have major ambitions to secure atomic weapons and compares them to a “nuclear tsunami preparing the largest religious cleansing in history.”

Back on June 3rd, we learned ISIS has vowed to smuggle a nuclear weapon across our completely open southern border, a report confirmed with eerie prescience by US General John Kelly, former commander of the US Southern Command while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in March. Days prior to theat June 3rd warning we learned from India that ISIS was working to get nuclear weapons from Pakistan.

On June 11th, Chuck Norris told the world his own ‘conspiracy theory’, one that if proven true would quickly spell the end of America, that ISIS nukes are just within a ‘short hop into the states’ and could easily move right into America ‘in the trunk of their car’. He also had words of warning for Washington DC and what he feels Jade Helm 15 might have really been all about, looking for ISIS’ nukes.

“This isn’t fiction, fairytale or conspiracy. I’m talking about the US government not sticking its heads in the sand or at least asking us to stick ours in it. Washington needs to quit downplaying or minimising the nuclear risk, lest we find ourselves right back in the unprepared era of pre-9/11.

“I don’t think that Jade Helm 15 is a risk to Texas or any other state. I think ISIS is, as the FBI admitted in February. The sooner we send every last one of its members to Mars, the better off America and this world will be. Now, there’s a covert action the military should implement.

“Now look at the official military map for Jade Helm 15 and how those military exercises’ locations in five of the seven states are a buttress against the entire length of the southern border.

“Whether or not you believe the intelligence sources of Judicial Watch and WND about ISIS collaborating with Mexican drug cartels and the existence of ISIS terror camps just eight miles from the Texas border town of El Paso, is it a coincidence that Jade Helm 15 exercises are just a stone’s throw away from that border crossing?”

We also learn in these important stories from Infowars that ISIS is now working with Saudi Arabia, the country recently selected to head a key UN Human Rights post, to kill Yemeni women and children as both the Saudi’s and ISIS hate the Shia Muslims. Meanwhile, the US somehow blames the Assad regime for everything that is happening in Syria, completely exposing the ‘new world order’s’ war agenda as shared in the 1st video below from RAZOR BRIARZ .

In the 2nd video below from The God Particle we look at a video called “Unsurvivable”, a documentary about a hypothetical World War 3 that shares with us the following very realistic scenario that reaches ISIS’ ‘death goal’ of hundreds of millions of people perfectly.:

World War III was a global war. It lasted from 2015 to 2021. It involved the vast majority of the world’s nations–including all of the great powers–eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Union of Nations and the Federation of Freedom. It was the most widespread war in history, with over 300 million people serving in military units. In a state of “total war,” the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, it resulted in an estimated 255 million fatalities. These made World War III the deadliest conflict in human history.

Is nuclear war ‘unsurvivable’? We pray to God that a scenario like this never unfolds upon our planet again.

Comment: Fear mongering in order to increase budgets for the CIA and NSA? That is entirely possible.  But if the US would be destroyed, that would free the hands of the people in Europe to solve their own problems. In any case, hell is eternal, hell is eternal, hell is eternal…

 

The lowest of the Khawarij

http://www.chechensinsyria.com/?p=22093

This is the true face of Jabhat al-Nusra…the terror attack was directed right at women and children of the Muhajirs. This is not the first time. Their aim is to frighten Muslims, to restrain those who make Hijra to the Islamic State. Because there is a big flood of immigrants. So they take the lowest measures – target women and children. They are the true Khawarij. And the lowest of them.

Comment: The reason why Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS destroy each other in Syria is because both groups have a hard time understanding that God can consist of several Persons. Of course, the problems would not completely disappear, but infighting would lessen. Not just Christianity, but also many Pagan religions accept the idea of Trinities, like that of the Slavic deity Triglav. Triglav consists of Svarog, Perun and Veles.