World Peace “Lennon Ivan Style” – Part 252

World Peace “Lennon Ivan Style” – Part 252 

During the week ending on Sunday, June 25, 2017, TURKEY retreated from their days of aggressive sieges 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 during July of 2016. 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 re-escalated this week as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused his attention on another purge of the Fethullah Gulen opposition movement supporters on the heals of celebrating the victory of the YES side in the referendum that was held on Sunday, April 16, 2017 whereby the majority of the TURKISH population voted in favour of TURKEY’s parliamentary system to be converted into a presidential system effectively consolidating power into one executive branch with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as its primary executor. Therefore, those opposing the vote say the proposed constitutional changes will give “Free Reign” to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has already been pushing the boundaries of his power as his governing AKP has been utilizing an increasingly authoritarian style since the failed “Coup D’État” attempt which led to an intense crackdown leading to the arrests of over 47,000 government critics, academics, journalists, military officials and civil servants. Nonetheless, TURKEY ignored all criticisms from foreign powers and went straight ahead this week with further crackdown measures by declaring that TURKISH schoolchildren will no longer be taught about evolution on the basis that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was controversial and would thus be removed from school programmes by 2019. In TURKEY’s opinion, students in the ninth grade are not mature enough to discuss the Origin of Life and Evolution section in biology classes such that this section will be delayed until undergraduate studies. Meanwhile, TURKEY rejected a key demand by several ARAB states involved in a major dispute with QATAR to shut down TURKEY’s military base in the small GULF country. Ironically, rather than focusing narrowly on alleged QATARI financing of extremism, the 13 point catalogue of demands consists of sweeping changes in direction that QATAR's neighbours are insisting the tiny, gas-rich nation must undertake to align itself with SAUDI ARABIA’s broader vision for the region. Although QATAR is likely to reject the 13-point catalogue, the list answers the growing call from the U.S. and from QATAR for the countries to put their grievances in writing. As a friendly reminder, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain broke ties with QATAR and restricted access to land, sea and air routes earlier this month over allegations QATAR funds terrorism, an accusation QATAR rejects but that U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated to lend support to the Arab states in dispute with QATAR. The move has left QATAR, whose only land border is shared with SAUDI ARABIA, under a de facto blockade by its neighbours. 

Moving on to IRAQ, IRAQI and US-led ALLIANCE forces continued with their offensive against ISIS on MOSUL as 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 in its entirety. As a friendly reminder, MOSUL is divided by the Tigris River with both east and west sides respectively making up about half of the population of MOSUL. Elite ALLIANCE forces managed to fight through an elaborate defense system formed by ISIS over the past two years, that kept ALLIANCE forces out while contemporaneously keeping the residents of MOSUL trapped in as captives, by recapturing east MOSUL in its entirety while being at the cusp of controlling west MOSUL in the short-term. On an unusual note, this week in a series of lightning fast advances, ALLIANCE forces seized further control of most of western MOSUL from ISIS as IRAQI forces put pressure on ISIS pushing ISIS into sheer desperation as ISIS blew up the GREAT MOSQUE of AL-NURI and its famous leaning minaret in a desperate attempt by ISIS to stop advancing IRAQI troops. IRAQI Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says the destruction of the ancient mosque in the city of MOSUL is an official declaration of defeat by ISIS. As a friendly reminder, the mosque, which was more than 800 years old, was where in July 2014 ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi demanded allegiance in his first and only public appearance following the declaration days earlier of a caliphate. The IRAQI commander in charge of the offensive to retake MOSUL claims that troops were within 160 feet of the mosque when ISIS committed another historical crime by demolishing this ancient landmark that ISIS had rigged with explosives to stop the advance of IRAQI troops. In a strange record-breaking event, a sniper with Canada’s elite Special Forces in IRAQ shattered the world’s record for longest confirmed kill from a staggering distance of 3,450 metres. The Glode and Mail reported that a member of the Canadian elite Special Forces killed an ISIS terrorist with a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle. However, the sniper did not expect to hit the target at such a distance but rather was hoping that his harassing fire would frighten ISIS militants to flee. However, the sniper was actually able to kill one of the ISIS fighters so that the ensuing engagement disrupted the ISIS attack allowing IRAQI Security forces to continue the advance with ISIS disoriented. 

Moving on to SYRIA, a ceasefire across SYRIA appears to be broken after 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. Although these talks represented the most serious diplomatic efforts in months, U.S. President, Donald Trump’s authorization of the firing of 59 TOMAHAWK cruise missiles at the SYRIAN Armed Forces in response to what the U.S. believes was a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 100 people authorized by President Bashar al-Assad has derailed the entire peace process. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could not agree on who was responsible for the chemical attacks. Although the 80 plus deaths from the chemical attacks have been widely blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, RUSSIA has denied the SYRIAN regime carried out the chemical attacks. Therefore, the U.S. and RUSSIA agreed for the moment to disagree as the war raged on this week although TURKEY, IRAN and RUSSIA signed an agreement at the SYRIAN cease-fire talks in KAZAKHSTAN two weeks ago calling for the creation of four de-escalation zones in SYRIA that represent the latest attempt by all key players in the region to reduce the violence in SYRIA including the commitment by President Bashar al-Assad that the SYRIAN air force will halt flights over the designated areas in SYRIA. Unfortunately, the new cease-fire deal including the four de-escalation zones have been the subject of numerous violations from the outset as tensions seem to continue to erupt albeit Russia and the U.S. continuing to discuss the situation in round-the-clock mode anticipating that eventually the de-escalation zones will be fully under control. Tensions escalated this week as a U.S. fighter jet shot down a SYRIAN warplane after it dropped bombs near local ground forces supported by the U.S. that represents the first time the U.S. military has downed a SYRIAN aircraft since the start of the civil war in 2011. Russia seems to have quickly retaliated as a RUSSIAN jet came within five feet of a U.S. reconnaissance plane near the Baltic Sea and acted provocatively by performing unsafe manoeuvres. Russia’s Defense Ministry, however, denied RUSSIAN forces were at fault and instead blamed the U.S. spy plane for making a provocative turn towards the RUSSIAN jet. Meanwhile, U.S. led ALLIANCE air strikes on two SYRIAN provinces targeting ISIS militants have killed 472 civilians over the past month, more than double that of the previous thirty-day period. 222 civilians, including 84 children, were killed in the largely ISIS held province of DEIR EZZOR while 250 civilians, including 53 children, were killed in RAQQA where U.S. backed forces are trying to oust ISIS militants from their stronghold in SYRIA bringing the overall civilian toll from the ALLIANCE's campaign to 1,953, including 456 children and 333 women. 

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 majority 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 the last 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 was supposed to 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 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 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 re-escalated this week as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused his attention on another purge of the Fethullah Gulen opposition movement supporters on the heals of celebrating the victory of the YES side in the referendum that was held on Sunday, April 16, 2017 whereby the majority of the TURKISH population voted in favour of TURKEY’s parliamentary system to be converted into a presidential system effectively consolidating power into one executive branch with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as its primary executor. Ironically, TURKEY ignored all criticisms from foreign powers and went straight ahead this week with further crackdown measures, as TURKISH schoolchildren will no longer be taught about evolution in yet another sign of the conservative direction TURKEY is heading in under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In my opinion, this move by TURKEY is part of a hardline application of Islamism throughout TURKEY moving TURKEY into the same category as SAUDI ARABIA, where the deeply religious curriculum forbids the teaching of evolution. In my opinion, TURKEY is reinforcing its Muslim roots whereby The Quran, like the Bible, teaches that Adam and Eve were the first humans whereby God created Adam from Clay and then formed Eve, also known as Hawwa, from Adam. However, in my opinion although the Theory Of Evolution is not widely accepted among religious Muslims in TURKEY, I believe that the Theory Of Evolution is not incompatible with the Quran and Bible’s teachings such that this gesture by TURKEY is symbolic of the return of TURKEY to a deeply religious Islamic state. In regards to TURKEY rejecting a key demand by several ARAB states involved in a major dispute with QATAR to shut down TURKEY’s military base in the small GULF country, I agree with TURKEY’s decision to side with QATAR in this dispute where tiny, gas-rich QATAR found itself on the defense against its much larger neighbours consisting of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. In my opinion, TURKEY made the right decision to side with QATAR as otherwise QATAR would have been crushed by the sheer might of its neighbours and from my point-of-view, it looks like QATAR’s neighbours are trying to force QATAR to bend to their will on a much broader set of issues. Furthermore, there appears to be ulterior motives behind the moves of QATAR’s neighbours who want QATAR to align itself politically, economically and otherwise with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional club that has focused on countering the influence of IRAN. However, Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led nations have accused QATAR of inappropriately close ties with IRAN, a Shia-led country and Saudi Arabia’s primary opposition in the region. In my opinion, QATAR has been supplied with an impossible list to be met because the list interferes with QATAR’s foreign policy while QATAR rightfully considers QATAR’s foreign policy a sovereign matter that is not negotiable. In regards to U.S. President Donald Trump throwing his support behind Saudi Arabia, this seems to go against previous U.S. foreign policies as concerns QATAR as there has been a longstanding relationship between the U.S. and QATAR who hosts over 10,000 U.S. military personnel on the biggest airbase in the Middle East. Thus, U.S. President Donald Trump might be unconsciously influenced by previous failed business dealings with QATAR businessmen that expose U.S. President Donald Trump to preconceived biases that QATAR supports terrorism. Ironically, RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin’s reaction to the Qatar crisis was a quick support for Qatar although avoiding any criticism of Saudi Arabia. However, this further reflects the complexity of the geopolitical landscape in the region as personal, financial and political interests cross in unusual directions such that the only certainty is the certainty that there will be perpetual disputes that are best resolved via negotiations. In summary, we have all seen that when the dominant parties in the region choose the path of war, the disputes never seem to end with respective sides relentlessly exchanging blows always trying to even the never ending score. 

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. Therefore, the ALLIANCE forces recapture of eastern MOSUL in its entirety has triggered a lightning fast momentum as ALLIANCE forces managed to seize control of major parts of Western MOSUL although in my opinion, the last of the fighting will most probably be a lot more difficult. In my opinion, ISIS will cling on to the oldest parts of MOSUL city where streets are narrow making it hard to manoeuvre military convoys and thus increasing the risk of ambushes and civilian casualties. Therefore, it is not surprising to see that ALLIANCE forces are having a difficult time to fully retake control of central MOSUL’s OLD CITY but this struggle is unfortunately necessary to secure the entire province of MOSUL such that patience is of utmost importance as ALLIANCE forces must continue with their relentless yet prudent attacks until ALL ISIS snipers have been eliminated. In regards to new IRAQI offensives in MOSUL whereby IRAQI forces put pressure on ISIS pushing ISIS into sheer desperation as ISIS blew up the GREAT MOSQUE of AL-NURI and its famous leaning minaret in a desperate attempt by ISIS to stop advancing IRAQI troops, this merely solidifies what everybody already knew about ISIS that ISIS would fight until death to defend its caliphate, even if it meant destroying the very mosque in which the ISIS caliphate was declared. Therefore, it is expected that ISIS will continue to fight on until the very end with whatever ammunition ISIS has left to inflict maximum punishment and maximum damage before ISIS ultimately looses its entire stranglehold on MOSUL. In regards to the strange record-breaking event whereby a sniper with Canada’s elite Special Forces in IRAQ shattered the world’s record for longest confirmed kill from a staggering distance of 3,450 metres resulting in an ISIS fighter being eliminated and ISIS disoriented by the hit, surprising but nonetheless impressive to see military interventions at their best, with talented snipers able to take miracle shots, disorienting ISIS to the point that ISIS unable to regroup for the following ALLIANCE onslaught. 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 SYRIAN government forces recapture of 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 now be broken 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 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 stalled after TURKEY and ASSAD’s two main allies, RUSSIA and IRAN, initially backed 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 were excluded from the agenda for the fifth round of negotiations that concluded at the end of March. 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 to implement a long-term sustainable solution for peace. 

In regards to the derailed peace talks, the derailment is obviously due to U.S. President, Donald Trump’s authorization of the firing of 59 TOMAHAWK cruise missiles at the SYRIAN Armed Forces in response to what the U.S. believes was a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 people authorized by President Bashar al-Assad. That being said, RUSSIA has now formally denied any involvement by the SYRIAN Armed Forces and RUSSIA in these chemical attacks and has gone so far as to accuse the SYRIAN rebels to be behind these chemical attacks on their own people. Therefore, the U.S. and RUSSIA agreed for the moment to disagree as the war raged on this week while officials from TURKEY that backs the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and IRAN and RUSSIA that backs the current regime under President Bashar al-Assad watched as the cease-fire agreement signed last week that establishes four de-escalation zones was violated. In my opinion, although the new cease-fire deal including the four de-escalation zones have been the subject of numerous violations from the outset as tensions seem to continue to erupt, I believe that RUSSIAN and U.S. round-the-clock discussions anticipating that eventually the de-escalation zones will be fully under control should be welcomed as a positive development in fully implementing the de-escalation zones. In my opinion, it is better for RUSSIA and the U.S. to try to work together to implement something in terms of de-escalation zones as opposed to sitting back and insuring that both parties achieve nothing. Thus, in regards to a U.S. fighter jet shooting down a SYRIAN warplane after it dropped bombs near local ground forces supported by the U.S., the confrontation represents a further escalation between forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad and the U.S. that has been directing the military campaign in SYRIA against ISIS. In my opinion, although Russia seems to have quickly retaliated as a RUSSIAN jet came within five feet of a U.S. reconnaissance plane near the Baltic Sea and acted provocatively by performing unsafe manoeuvres, it is not surprising that Russia’s Defense Ministry, denied RUSSIAN forces were at fault and instead blamed the U.S. spy plane for making a provocative turn towards the RUSSIAN jet. That being said, it is a shame to once again see the overall civilian toll from the ALLIANCE’s recent campaign in SYRIA in DEIR EZZOR and RAQQA of 1,953, including 456 children and 333 women albeit the reflection of the realities of war. In my opinion, even the ALLIANCE forces realize that war is not some kind of a videogame where nobody gets hurt such that war is a terrible thing that should only be utilized as the final course of action and never the first. However, when war is necessary as it is by the ALLIANCE against ISIS, fighting back with honor, courage and determination to win will unfortunately result with collateral damage. Nonetheless, in my opinion, collateral damage is never in vain for the battle for the freedom of rights to one’s culture, race, religion and language such that ALLIANCE forced need to press on while paying their respects to those unfortunately caught in the crossfire with the ISIS dements. That being said, it seems that the U.S. may be inadvertently sliding into a far bigger role in the SYRIAN civil war than it had initially intended. In my opinion, with each ALLIANCE strike, the U.S. owns more of the conflict in SYRIA without specifying a military strategy so that the U.S. is essentially sleepwalking into a much broader military mandate without saying what the U.S. plans to do afterwards. However, when dealing with an envious, jealous, greedy, ferocious, viscous and malicious Satanist Hater psychotic neurotic lunatic organization like ISIS, it is very difficult to develop a military strategy other than the strategy of taking ISIS out whenever it makes sense to do so from a cost/benefit perspective. In simple English, the U.S. strategy against ISIS seems to be that when ISIS can be hit hard while minimizing collateral damage, ISIS should be hit relentlessly until ISIS is taken out of the game after which the secession planning for ascension to the throne of grace cannot be worse than the ISIS GANGSTER mercenary face. 

In summary, I refer to “World Peace Lennon Ivan Style – Part 252” as the belief that MOSUL victory is critical to ISIS decimation but SYRIAN ceasefire between ASSAD and FSA also key while SYRIAN negotiations must result in peace albeit U.S. collateral damage in strikes on ISIS in DEIR EZZOR and RAQQA without secession planning for ascension to the throne of grace other than cannot be worse than the ISIS GANGSTER mercenary face. 

Spirit of John Lennon – Kurdish Guerrilla Song:  

June 25, 2017