Syria's Cauldron: One Step Away from Major Showdown

Authored by Peter Korzun via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
Authored by Peter Korzun via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
After the Manchester suicide bombing only two weeks ago I warned my readers that the repetition of terror attacks is breeding complacency within the public, in Europe most acutely. It is not uncommon now for attacks killing dozens to be forgotten within a week of the event. The news feeds are awash in distraction, and of course, sometimes these events themselves act as distractions.
In a recent newscast of MSNBC's “Morning Joe”, BBC anchor Katty Kay stated:
Yesterday's news that Saudi Arabia has issued an ultimatum to Qatar, listing ten demands among which that Qatar end all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, has prompted a dramatic response by the small Gulf nation, and according to a just released report by Arabic CNN (and confirmed locally) US officials have said they have observed increased Qatari military activity as the country placed its forces "on the highest state of alert" over fears of an imminent military incursion.
The day before "Berserker Thursday" with its UK elections, Comey testimony and the ECB decision, was supposed to be quiet. Instead we had the first domestic Iran terrorism in decades, Iran vowing revenge on Saudi Arabia, rising Qatar crisis tensions, South Korea telling the US it can go to hell, Syria threatening to strike US forces, the biggest crude crash in months, Germany pulling out of Turkey, Turkey approving the deployment of troops to Qatar, and stocks of course finishing the day higher.
Two days after Germany's foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel - standing next to his Turkish colleague Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara - said his "country has no choice but to begin the process of pulling its forces out of Turkey's Incirlik air force base" as the Turkish government will not allow all German lawmakers to visit troops there, Germany followed through on its threat and on Wednesday, the German Cabinet backed the withdrawal of the country's troops from Incirlik air base in Southern Turkey.
Incirlik air base