World War III Is Unfolding As You Read These Words

Let us revisit an observation I made three years in this column. I quoted General Dempsey as he warned Obama that if continued to intervene in Syria, we needed to be prepared “for what would come back our way”. Dempsey was undoubtedly talking about a Russian military response and the potential for World War III. Later, I predicted that World War III would begin in Syria.

The War Has Begun

“Turkey’s artillery opened fire on the positions of the Syrian Army in the vicinity of Aliya mountain in the northwestern part of the province of Latakia.”  Are these the first shots of World War III?

Meanwhile, the Turkish shelling of Kurdish positions continued for more than three hours. Hundreds of Kurds have been killed. Turkish forces are using mortars and missiles and firing from the Turkish border not far from the city of Azaz in the Aleppo Governorate. The Turks have even set up a refugee camp INSIDE of Syria which will prevent refugees from streaming back across the border. Further, the Kurds are not being allowed to enter the refugee camp. As yourself, why isn’t the American media covering these events? Answer: They do not want to let the American people just how close to war we truly are.

Turkey: Ankara, Riyadh Ready to Send Troops to Syria

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are ready to put their respective military forces on the ground inside of Syria under the pretext of fighting Daesh.  Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Chavushoglu says Ankara and Riyadh could enter into a ground operation in Syria if necessary. According to Chavushoglu, Saudi Arabia is in the process of deploying their fighter jets and bombers  at Injirlik, which is near the southern border of Turkey and Syria

Riyadh has been lobbying for a ground invasion of Syria by forces from its closest allies in the region. Syria, in an escalating war of words, has warned Turkey against doing so and have threatened to send the Turks and their allies home in coffins.

Just When It Cannot Get Any Worse

Dimitry Medvedev draws a line in the sand against Turkey and Saudi Arabia intentions to put boots on the ground inside of Syria.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE have all expressed their willingness to commit troops to the escalating conflict. Saudi Arabia is participating in a military buildup on the Syrian border as I write these words. And what was the Russian response to this course of action? Predictably, Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev has said an intervention by foreign powers would result in “permanent” war in the region. The proverbial line in the sand has been drawn.

Motivations for Turkey and Her Allies to Invade Syria

In a direct means to compensate for the loss of Ukraine as an energy hub in the midst of that civil war, Russia reached out to NATO member Turkey, in 2014, and reached an accord to bypass Ukraine as a conduit for oil shipments.

Turkey’s gas deal,  inked with Russia in the Spring of 2014, represented one more time that the grand chess master, Putin, had apparently outmaneuvered the amateur checkers player, Obama. With this gas deal, Turkey may not have formally left NATO, but make no mistake about it, Turkey had left NATO with this deal. Further, Russia could bypass Ukraine with regard to the shipment of Russian oil. This was Turkey’s way of obtaining cheap access to energy. Putin was all too happy to oblige if he could negate the military threat that Turkey would pose if Russia were to ever intervene in Syria, which it subsequently has.

Turkey and Russia are long-time adversaries since the implementation of the Cold War and the advent of the 1947 Truman Doctrine. This gas deal looked like a staggering blow to the U.S. and NATO because Turkey has been not only a key NATO ally, but it has been the linchpin of all American efforts to bypass Russia with oil and gas pipelines. The situation caused by the Turkey-Russia gas deal was so dire, that in the event of World War III, the U.S. would be forced to destroy this pipeline. In other words, Turkey would have become a military ally with Russia.

The South Stream energy deal was supposed to run through the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary into Austria and points west and it attempted to counter South Stream by proposing another pipeline, called “Nabucco” which was to have linked Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria with Turkey and Azerbaijan. This pipeline failed because the United States blocked funding for the pipeline and or a source of gas. Are you keeping a body count of the NATO allies which are going to have extreme difficulty heating their homes and businesses and would have been subject to Putin’s blackmail? From a military perspective, these nations provideda buffer between Russian invasion of America’s primary NATO allies of Germany, France, Italy and the UK. Putin would then focus on seeking defectors from these four allies. So, how did the United States respond to the threat? ISIL, through the complicit support of the CIA began supplying cheap oil, very cheap oil, to the Turks and her regional allies. In exchange, Turkey was forced to militarily intervene in Syria, or at least slow the Russians down and this is what we are presently witnessing. 

In summary, the United States/Federal Reserve avoided catastrophe because they were able exert enough pressure on Turkey to withdraw from their Russian deal. Turkey backed of this deal in July of 2015 after the CIA began to exert real pressure on Turkey.

Checkmate on Putin and his attempt at using oil to blackmail members of NATO into leaving the alliance.

A Continent Away, NATO Continues to Provoke Russia

The Map Does Not Lie: Again, Checkmate, Mr. Putin

Moscow has repeatedly referred to NATO expansion as a “provocation”, and western officials believe it has fueled anti-government protests in Montenegro in an attempt to stop the country’s membership bid. However, the Montenego parliament, apparently being bribed by western banking interests, has voted to join NATO and the government in Podgorica has carried out reforms of its armed forces and defense ministry to enhance its eligibility. This will be a done deal by this Wednesday.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told a Bosnian newspaper: “With regards to the expansion of Nato, I see it as a mistake, even a provocation in a way. This is … an irresponsible policy that undermines the determination to build a system of equal and shared security in Europe, equal for everyone regardless of whether a country is a member of this or that bloc.”

Conclusion

The situation related to Syria is so fluid and volatile that it could be likely that by the time that you read these words, this article may be outdated. This is the story of the day, and the only place that you can read about it is in the Independent Media.