World Peace “Lennon Ivan Style” – Part 234

World Peace “Lennon Ivan Style” – Part 234

As a continuation from my last blog whereby I believe the root of “World Peace” is centered on peace in the Middle East with the first step being negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinians, I would like to remain objective and independent in my views such that I would like to today bring Iraq into my views as they seem to be the closest at this time to a full fledge civil war of rage like wild animals stuck together in a cage. However, it is important to note that Israel and Palestine seem to be awakening from their hatred induced coma state with the potential for peace negotiations to be resumed in the near future in the United States, while Egypt continues to operate in supremacy domination mode whereby the minority Christian military continues to hold on to power while the Muslim majority is fuming at the seams hoping to awaken from this horrible dream. As for the Syrians, both sides are still in anger induced coma state for the mentally insane such that millions of Syrians continue to suffer each and every day. In terms of the Russians and Ukrainians, they seem to have entered into a political war game whereby neither party wishes to concede but rather seems to prefer to enter into a civil war and commit dirty deeds. While Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Syrians, Russians and Ukrainians continue along their respective paths toward enlightenment, it is now time for the Iraqis to be enlightened as to the path of quelling their current tensions before any more civil war breaks out which bears the risk of leading to a third and final world war on this earth, after which, there will be no place for anyone left to run. In summary, Observers around the world are stunned by the speed and scope of assaults on every major city in the upper Tigris River Valley, including Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. However, as the ISIS rebels extend their reach across Iraq, the U.S. Air Force was forced to intervene in order to prevent Genocide while Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki relinquished power opening a new political chapter that U.S. officials hope will move Iraq toward a more unified front against Islamic jihadists currently running wild and literally beheading “Infidels” like pigs without shedding a tear as blood spills out of their victims giving everybody creepy chills.

During the week ending on Sunday, February 19, 2017, TURKEY retreated from their aggressive siege of CIZRE, SILOPI, DIYARBAKIR and NUSAYBIN, predominantly KURDISH, which TURKEY had converted into a suburban war zone area as TURKEY was on the defense as they were subject to an internal military “Coup D’État” that failed as gunfire and explosions erupted in which 265 people died, 161 of them civilians, over one month ago. As a result of the failed “Coup D’État”, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency, extended the period during which suspects can be detained without charge to 30 days, closed more than 1,000 private schools and closed more than 1,200 associations. A wide scale purge led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his governing AKP finally continued to de-escalate slightly more this week as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused his attention on ISIS once again as TURKISH troops and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) entered ISIS held AL BAB, ISIS’s last stronghold in northern SYRIA, at the same time as SYRIAN government forces were approaching. Heavy clashes were reported with ISIS in AL BAB, 40 km south of the TURKISH border resulting in severe damage to ISIS with over 45 ISIS fighters killed, at least 245 ISIS targets, including ISIS shelters, headquarters, defence positions and vehicles hit and 55 buildings used by ISIS as hideouts, two headquarters, two meeting points, a guard station, an arms depot, and a wireless station also destroyed. Ironically, U.S. President Donald Trump who has made destruction of the ISIS terror group his top national security goal has not yet contacted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan given Turkey’s heavy ground troops in Syria now fighting ISIS. However, given that the areas of disagreement keep growing between TURKEY and the USA with President Donald Trump’s visa suspension for seven Muslim majority countries and the indefinite ban on SYRIAN refugees whereas TURKEY hosts over three million SYRIANS, this discussion will likely not mend the differences in opinions between the two countries. Ironically, during Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s recent White House visit with U.S. President Donald Trump, he chose to make a politically correct statement to the effect that Canadians were not interested in Canada telling the U.S. how to run their country and thus avoided discussions regarding these sensitive subjects.

Moving on to IRAQ, IRAQI and US-led ALLIANCE forces continued with their offensive against ISIS on MOSUL. However, ISIS has sent the message to the world that it will do whatever it takes to defend MOSUL as ISIS has chosen the usage of its own people as human shields. Nonetheless, IRAQI and ALLIED forces managed to push ISIS militants back from MOSUL, their last major stronghold in IRAQ, whereby IRAQI special forces appear to have liberated the eastern half of MOSUL from ISIS. As a friendly reminder, MOSUL that is divided by the Tigris River with both east and west sides respectively making up about half of the population of MOSUL was impressively liberated by the IRAQI and KURDISH Peshmerga forces. These elite ALLIANCE forces managed to fight through an elaborate defense system formed by ISIS over the past two years that managed to keep the ALLIANCE forces out while contemporaneously keeping the residents of MOSUL trapped in as captives. However, ISIS forces now appear to be regrouping in Western MOSUL albeit showing signs of desperation as ISIS forced residents to provide food to its combat detachments as a sign of support for ISIS while threatening to punish anyone who violated these instructions. In addition, ISIS closed all remaining SHARIA COURTS in western MOSUL and started to evacuate ISIS headquarters immediately which is another sign of desperation as SHARIA COURT is a very important body in the ISIS organization as it has a lot of authority including arrest warrants. Thus far, since the battle first commenced on October 17, IRAQI, KURDISH and ALLIED forces advances have been impressive on their push to retake MOSUL, ISIS's de facto capital in IRAQ where as many as 1.5 million people are believed to still remain. However, progress has been slow as the ALLIANCE forces have faced counterattacks from the ISIS fighters who deployed hundreds of suicide car bombs, as well as mortars and snipers and used MOSUL’s million plus residents as human shields. Unfortunately, ISIS is still a force to be reckoned with, due to its significant wealth amassed in safe havens abroad, such that although the battle for MOSUL will likely lead to the end of the ISIS era in IRAQ, the ISIS wealth abroad will likely lead to ISIS taking the fight to the streets on foreign soil which will necessitate heightened security measures until kingdom come. Therefore, the US-led ALLIANCE needs to be on heightened security alerts world wide as ISIS will look to find any and all possible retributory strikes, the most savage and barbarian possible, in an attempt to save face from a humiliating defeat of its MOSUL base.

Moving on to SYRIA, SYRIAN government forces have retaken full control of ALEPPO, since the uprising began, after nearly six years of bloody fighting for Syria’s most populous city and SYRIA’s economic hub that has been the most prized and fiercely contested city throughout the Syrian conflict. As a friendly reminder, since the Syrian army’s assault against rebel held ALEPPO began in late September, RUSSIAN and SYRIAN government bombardments have killed more than 1,000 people, including over 250 children while injuring over 5,000. Now, a ceasefire across SYRIA appears to be holding as its brokers, RUSSIA, TURKEY and IRAN obtained approval of the plan from the UN Security Council overriding all previous failed peace proposals and finally ending the six-year conflict. Against all odds, the ceasefire largely continues to hold as peace negotiations have commenced in ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN with TURKEY and ASSAD’s two main allies, RUSSIA and IRAN, backing these peace talks as guarantors of a fragile ceasefire. However, the process continues to be advancing at a snails pace after a two-day meeting on January 23 and 24 whereby Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed on establishing a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with a cease-fire in SYRIA with the next round of negotiations to be held between the government and opposition forces in Geneva on February 20. However, Amnesty International allegations of war crimes whereby over thirteen thousand people were hanged at a SYRIAN prison in a secret crackdown on dissent by the current regime under the authority of President, Bashar al-Assad seems to be off the agenda. This development means that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's future will be off the agenda and the main focus of the talks among various Syrian factions will be governance, a new constitution and elections. However, it seems to be clear that everybody wants a political solution to end the SYRIAN military conflict and that this political solution must be achieved in GENEVA under the control of the UNITED NATIONS and that there cannot be any other parallel negotiations. Meanwhile, ISIS militants slaughtered hundreds of rival militants in a desperate bid to re-establish their authority in Syria. It appears that ISIS terrorists captured at least 200 fighters from AL QAEDA and a group aligned with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in IDLIB and HAMA provinces whereby 160 of the opposition fighters killed were affiliated with the FSA and 40 were from AL QAEDA.

In my opinion, Turkey’s participation in the military battle against ISIS is a positive addition to the ALLIANCE albeit Turkey’s negative stance against the PKK that in my opinion is currently unwarranted and deteriorating. However, with the recent majority victory by the governing AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it appears that Turkey’s future is heading for more war and bloodshed. Unfortunately, the governing AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have chosen the path of war with the PKK as opposed to diplomacy via the KURDISH HDP political party which secured close to 11% during recent Turkish elections. Therefore, in my opinion, the governing AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will learn the hard way that nobody on the outside world looking in is stupid but rather everyone chooses to close their eyes and allow Turkey to continue with its ethnic cleansing campaign of the KURDS in exchange for Turkey signing a deal with the European Union (EU) to stem the flow of refugees arriving in Greece. In exchange for reducing human trafficking and improving living conditions for 2.5 million refugees within its borders, Turkey will receive Euro 3 billion in financial aid in return, the possibility of visa-free travel for its citizens, and a reopening of EU membership talks. In my opinion, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the governing AKP will learn the hard way that the current failed “Coup D’État” exposes the deep discontent within the TURKISH military ranks as the governing AKP and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan persist with their quest to annihilate the HDP and the KURDS as the AKP is converting itself into a majority fascist regime with its house cleaning exercises whereby virtually all dissidents have been fired. In my opinion, the recent European parliament vote to halt TURKEY’s EU accession backed by a resolution condemning the TURKISH government’s disproportionate repressive measures after the failed “Coup D’État” in July was long overdue as TURKEY has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt, with its repressive measures over all opposition, that TURKEY does not share common values, morals, principals, ethics and views as the EU such that TURKEY does not fit into the EU mould. However, in my opinion, TURKEY still represents a major player on the European economic stage such that the EU will nonetheless have to negotiate deals with TURKEY as an independent NON-EU member country regarding the huge refugee crisis. In my opinion, in exchange for reducing human trafficking and improving living conditions for 2.5 million refugees within its borders, TURKEY should only receive Euro 1.5 billion, half of the initial proposed 3 billion, in financial aid along with visa-free travel for its citizens who do not pose any significant risks outside of TURKISH borders. Finally, the wide scale purge led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his governing AKP continued to de-escalate further this week as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused his attention on ISIS as TURKISH troops and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) recaptured most of ISIS held AL BAB, ISIS’s last stronghold in northern SYRIA. In my opinion, this was a strategic move long overdue by TURKEY as AL BAB that is 40 km south of the TURKISH border represented an ISIS safe haven for smuggling arms into and out of TURKEY such that it needed to be shut down. In terms of the massive destruction inflicted by the TURKISH troops on AL BAB both in terms of ISIS casualties and ISIS shelters, buildings, headquarters, defence positions and vehicles, this is the only effective approach to decimate ISIS. In my opinion, TURKEY needs to continue with this approach on ISIS of strike hard, strike fast and strike all to make it count so that ISIS cannot regroup and mount any sort of comeback. In regards to the areas of disagreement that keep growing between TURKEY and the USA with President Donald Trump’s visa suspension for seven Muslim majority countries and the indefinite ban on SYRIAN refugees while TURKEY hosts over three million SYRIANS, I was not surprised to see Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau make a politically correct statement to the effect that Canadians were not interested in Canada telling the U.S. how to run their country and thus avoiding discussions regarding these sensitive subjects. In my opinion, President Donald Trump has gone way too far with his visa suspension for seven Muslim majority countries and indefinite ban on SYRIAN refugees as these policies effectively apply collective punishment on the entirety of these seven Muslim majority nations for the minority of terrorists living in these nations. In my opinion, there is no doubt that these seven Muslim majority nations do represent the highest risk to the U.S. in terms of the possibility of a terrorist entering U.S. soil but I believe that a more constructive solution would have been a more stringent visa program. That is, I believe the U.S. could have offered these seven Muslim majority nations the possibility of implementing a more stringent U.S. screening process with U.S. customs and border patrol officers on site in these seven Muslim majority nations to insure that more stringent U.S. screening processes are thoroughly applied with the incremental expense born by these seven Muslim majority nations whose citizens still desire to enter the U.S.

Moving on to IRAQ, the recent successful attacks on ISIS by IRAQI security forces in MOSUL, has clearly sent the message to ISIS that it is just a matter of time until the ISIS Empire in MOSUL dies. However, the IRAQI led troops on the ground are essentially forced to fight ISIS style, which is slow and brutal for any other type of heavy artillery attack on ISIS, will result in significant collateral damage in terms of human casualties. Unfortunately ISIS has managed to set new rules of war, with complete and utter disregard for the laws of war as promulgated by the GENEVA convention, which is essentially that there are no rules other than the dirtiest player in the game wins. Thus, the world finds itself going backwards to the days of Barbarian, Neanderthal, Self-Centered, Egotistical, Narcissistic, Masochistic, Sadistic, Idiosyncratic, Sociopathic and Psychopathic maniacs. Therefore, the ALLIANCE forces recapture of eastern MOSUL in its entirety has not surprisingly triggered further ISIS psychopathic behaviours with ISIS now threatening its residents in Western MOSUL if they refuse to feed the ISIS fighters. In my opinion, ISIS will put up a tough fight in Western MOSUL that still remains under ISIS control despite the heavy losses ISIS suffered so far in the battle for eastern MOSUL. Unfortunately, ISIS continues to be a determined organization ready, willing and able to fight until death such that there are no guarantees of a timely victory when fighting such a relentless paramilitary terrorist force. In my opinion, the offensive on Western MOSUL will be more difficult because of the density of the population and the narrow streets and alleyways through which armoured vehicles cannot pass. However, the strategy so far on Western MOSUL of putting pressure on ISIS daily by cutting off their logistics and hammering their command and control with coordinated attacks on their weapons depots is fundamental to significantly weakening the ISIS organization before the imminent attack on Western MOSUL. Therefore, in my opinion, assuming that the KURDISH peshmerga, IRAQI army, SHIITE militia and some SUNNI militia forces continue to overlook their differences and stick together, ISIS will inevitably be decimated in IRAQ, although ISIS will likely survive as an incognito terrorist organization throughout the world. In my opinion, with ISIS inevitably nearing its downfall in IRAQ, IRAQI security forces need to be prepared for a different kind of war against ISIS, shifting away from ground offensives to intelligence work and surgical airstrikes to counter an expected move by ISIS away from holding territory and back to a more terrorist role of a dispersed underground terror organization. In my opinion, ISIS is already laying the groundwork for a new terrorist strategy of hiding in remote areas, carrying out attacks in IRAQ and abroad and resorting to organized crime to bankroll future operations.

Moving on to SYRIA, the latest news that the SYRIAN government forces have recaptured the entire former rebel stronghold of east ALEPPO in an offensive that left bodies in the streets and sparked global outrage managed to lead to a ceasefire across SYRIA that appears to still be holding after its brokers, RUSSIA, TURKEY and IRAN obtained approval from the UN Security Council. In my opinion, RUSSIA that invested much political time and energy in ending the fighting after bombing the opposition relentlessly for the past 15 months was the critical player in this ceasefire as RUSSIA managed to control the uncontrollable consisting of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, Iran and Shiite militias like Lebanon’s Hezbollah whereas TURKEY managed to control the Free Syrian Army (FSA) along with their affiliated rebel factions. Meanwhile, peace negotiations have commenced in ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN with TURKEY and ASSAD’s two main allies, RUSSIA and IRAN, backing these peace talks as guarantors of a fragile ceasefire. However, the allegations by Amnesty International that over thirteen thousand people were hanged at a SYRIAN prison in a secret crackdown on dissent by the current regime under the authority of President, Bashar al-Assad have been excluded from the agenda. In my opinion, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's future should be off the agenda for now and the main focus of the talks should be governance, a new constitution and elections as the primary goal of these meetings should be to end the war in SYRIA and implement a long-term sustainable solution for peace. In regards to the alleged war crimes by Amnesty International, there is plenty of time to prosecute those responsible in the future after SYRIA is stabilized since the damage has already been done and nothing anyone says or does at this stage can ever bring back the victims slaughtered during one of the most brutal and savage wars of human history. In regards to ISIS killing at least 200 fighters from AL QAEDA and a group aligned with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in IDLIB and HAMA provinces, this for me is equivalent to a GANGSTER street war such that it should not derail the current SYRIAN ceasefire in place along with future negotiations. In my opinion, ISIS along with all other extremist factions still operating in SYRIA such as the AL QAEDA, JABHAT FATEH AL-SHAM jihadist group, formerly known as NUSRA FRONT, and AHRAR AL-SHAM will continue to wage war regardless of the ceasefire deal brokered by TURKEY, RUSSIA and IRAN but to the extent they continue to battle for territory amongst themselves, they should be let to go as the more they kill amongst their own, the less effort will be required by the SYRIAN security force.

In summary, I refer to “World Peace Lennon Ivan Style – Part 234” as the belief that MOSUL victory is critical to ISIS decimation but SYRIAN ceasefire between ASSAD and FSA also key while SYRIAN turf wars amongst rival terrorist gangster factions should be let to go as they cannot be controlled so better for them to kill amongst their own.

Spirit of John Lennon – Kurdish Guerrilla Song:

February 19, 2017