France under attack?

The bastille attacks unveils many failures -
France lack of security to safeguard public demonstrations.
The west may ignore Muslim suffering, but Islamic Jihad will continue to remind Europe how close they are from these ongoing bloody wars.
The war in terror transformed the world into a less safer place.
Digital revolution enables Jihadist anarchism to act without state's involvement, different from "active terrorism support".

Are We on the Path to National Ruin?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/opinion/are-we-on-the-path-to-national-ruin.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

San Antonio — I never really understood how fascism could have come to Europe, but I think I understand better now. You start with some fundamental historical transformation, like the Great Depression or the shift to an information economy. A certain number of people are dispossessed. They lose identity, self-respect and hope.

They begin to base their sense of self-worth on their tribe, not their behavior. They become mired in their resentments, spiraling deeper into the addiction of their own victimology. They fall for politicians who lie about the source of their problems and about how they can surmount them. Facts lose their meaning. Entertainment replaces reality."

Normally, nations pull together after tragedy, but a society plagued by dislocation and slipped off the rails of reality can go the other way. Rallies become gripped by an exaltation of tribal fervor. Before you know it, political life has spun out of control, dragging the country itself into a place both bizarre and unrecognizable.

This happened in Europe in the 1930s. We’re not close to that kind of descent in America today, but we’re closer than we’ve been. Let’s be honest: The crack of some abyss opened up for a moment by the end of last week.

Blood was in the streets last week — victims of police violence in two cities and slain cops in another. America’s leadership crisis looked dire. The F.B.I. director’s statements reminded us that Hillary Clinton is willing to blatantly lie to preserve her career. Donald Trump, of course, lies continually and without compunction. It’s very easy to see this country on a nightmare trajectory.

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How can America answer a set of generational challenges when the leadership class is dysfunctional, political conversation has entered a post-fact era and the political parties are divided on racial lines — set to blow at a moment’s notice?

Syrie : les troubles arrangements de Lafarge avec l’Etat islamique

C’est l’histoire d’une dérive, une histoire de « zone grise » comme les guerres en produisent. L’histoire d’une cimenterie en Syrie, l’une des plus modernes et importantes du Proche-Orient, que sa direction a tenté de faire fonctionner coûte que coûte au milieu d’un pays à feu et à sang, au prix d’arrangements troubles et inavouables avec les groupes armés environnants, dont l’organisation Etat islamique (EI). C’est, enfin, l’histoire d’une société française, Lafarge, numéro un mondial du ciment depuis sa fusion avec le suisse Holcim et fleuron du CAC 40, qui a indirectement – et peut-être à son insu – financé les djihadistes de l’EI pendant un peu plus d’un an, entre le printemps 2013 et la fin de l’été 2014.
En savoir plus sur http://www.lemonde.fr/syrie/article/2016/06/21/syrie-les-troubles-arrangements-de-lafarge-avec-l-etat-islamique_4955023_1618247.html#JX2QacMhHH7sOw2B.99

European countries attempt to seek justice for Syria victims

France’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexis Lamek said that “in France more than 350 court proceedings in relation with Syria have been opened in the anti-terrorist courts since 2014.”

He said French judicial authorities are also looking at possible criminal charges stemming from the archive of more than 10,000 photos of bodies of imprisoned Syrian rebels and dissidents taken by a Syrian military photographer who defected and now goes by the pseudonym Caesar.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/european-countries-attempt-to-seek-justice-for-syria-victims/2016/06/21/19d29a26-3815-11e6-af02-1df55f0c77ff_story.html

Syria’s children starve as America looks o

Over the weekend, Russian and Syrian planes heavily bombed civilian areas in rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Idlib. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 500 civilians, including 105 children, had been killed in 45 consecutive days of bombing in Aleppo. The “cessation of hostilities” negotiated by Mr. Kerry in February, which was never fully observed by Russia and Syria, has been shredded. 

And the Obama administration’s response? It is still waiting patiently for the regime of Bashar al-Assad to stop dropping barrel bombs from helicopters on hospitals and allow passage to aid convoys. It is still asking politely for Russia to stop bombing Western-backed rebel units and to compel the Assad regime to follow suit. “We expect the regime to live up to its commitments,” said a State Department statement Monday. “We ask Russia to use its influence to end this inhumane policy.” As for airdrops, “that’s a very complex question,” said a spokeswoman.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/empty-stomachs-empty-words/2016/06/06/8b725182-2c06-11e6-b5db-e9bc84a2c8e4_story.html

A Schengen Zone for NATO Why the Alliance Needs Open Borders for Troops

NATO’s member states are willing to defend one another, and they have the troops and the equipment to do so. But quickly getting those troops and equipment to their destination is a different matter altogether. In some new NATO member states, bridges and railroads are simply not suitable for large troop movements. But one thing frustrates commanders even more: the arduous process of getting permission to move troops across borders.

“I was probably naïve,” admits Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. “I assumed that because these were NATO and EU countries we’d just be able to move troops. But ministries of defense are not responsible for borders.”

At their upcoming summit in Warsaw, NATO members will discuss joint responses to Russian aggression, and they are likely to agree to station four battalions—totaling about 4,000 troops—in the Baltic states and Poland. But with Russia forming two new divisions in its western military region, which borders the Baltic states, 4,000 forward-stationed troops may not be enough to deter a potential attack. (A division consists of 10,000 to 20,000 troops.)

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/2016-06-06/schengen-zone-nato

U.N. pleads with Syria to airlift aid to starving civilians

Meanwhile there is no need for authorization to the use of force to promove a civilian massacre, deliberately killing all life on the ground! So unresponsible and evil. 

The United Nations, backed by the United States, Britain and other powers, urged the Syrian government on Friday to end all sieges and allow U.N. airdrops of aid to hundreds of thousands of people trapped across conflict-torn Syria.



"Nearly 600,000 people are besieged in 19 different areas in Syria, according to the U.N., with two-thirds trapped by government forces and the rest by armed opposition groups and Islamic State militants."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-un-idUSKCN0YP1UA